Bound to Change
by King of Cardinals
Summary: Waking up in a new world wasn't how one usually chose to spend their week, But hey I'm pretty sure they say that stress is good for one's health. When someone new wakes up in Remnant things are bound to change. Rated M to be safe.
1. Burnin Through the Sky, Yeah 200 Degrees

Burnin' Through the Sky, Yeah 200 Degrees!

The first thing I felt when opening my eyes was the wind blasting in my face and howling in my ears. My body was suddenly slammed back as it felt the force of the gusts hitting me. It took a couple of seconds for my brain to catch up to what was happening. Que a loud girlish scream as I hurtled through the air at inhuman speeds.

This carried on for a couple moments until it flashed before my eyes, my last memory before whatever was happening to me right now. I had been playing my favorite MOBA late at night, as my favorite guardian. I was up a lot longer than I probably should've and had decided to hit the hay before I ended up pulling an all-nighter by accident.

That begged the question how and why was I falling through the sky right now.

My brain determined that one of three scenarios was happening right now. One I had been kidnapped while I was asleep and thrown out of a plane to fall to my death. While I suspect there have been some people in my life that wouldn't mind throwing me out of a plane I doubt they would waste the time and effort to do so.

Two I was dreaming, I would have normally assumed that this was case if it weren't for the fact that all of my senses were going into overdrive and screaming at me and I could clearly tell this wasn't a dream.

So that left option three some wacky magic or supernatural event. Like those kind of redundant and cringy reborn in another world stories. So I'm probably crazy for thinking this, But hey I've got bigger problems at the moment.

Namely gravity, as I'm still tumbling down towards the giant forest, now that I take look, below me. Somehow fighting against the wind assaulting my face I'm able to take a glance around the area surrounding me. I can barely make out the blurry outlines of other humanoid shapes. Meaning I wasn't the only one that was flying to my death currently. It was comforting, except that it wasn't. All of a sudden panic surged through me. What was happening? Why was I here? Why don't I remember anything? But the biggest one was "is this the end?"

Even if I had by some impossible chance come to a New World was I destined to go splat on the ground as soon as I realized it. Right now I could distinguish the trees below me rather than as some big clumps of green and they were coming in fast.

"Welp this is the end I thought" I hadn't even got a chance to do something with my life.

However my somber musings were interrupted by a flash of red and orange metal flying by me like a rocket. A girlish scream not too different from mine own mere moments ago came after. My body almost as if it were acting on its own instinctively grabbed at something that was strapped to my back even if I had no idea why. My hands brought right in front of me this large piece of black and green metal that I vaguely recognized as a spear of some sort. But it was a lot more futuristic in nature. It had a sharp looking end and it looked like it could do some serious damage to someone on the other end of it.

Even if it was hopeless I needed to at least try and save myself from becoming a human pancake.

The problem was I had no idea what to do and I couldn't think of any strategy to land safely and I was running short on time. So with no other choice I did the stupidest and most insane thing that popped into my head first. I aimed the spear in my hand towards the trees and got ready to stab.

You see my reasoning was that sticking the sharp metal rod into a tree would bring my perilous momentum to a halt and save me from a harsh meeting with the Forest floor. At best only my arms would break but I would live, at worst the sheer force going through my arms from attempting to stop would tear them off, but I would have a reasonable chance at surviving the rest of the fall. So I decided that I would rather live without my arms than be dead with two of them.

I took aim at the closest tree and as soon as I crossed the canopy line thrust the spear out with all of my might.

My fears of not being strong enough to pierce the trunk of the tree proved unfounded as it pierced the bark like a hot knife through butter. It seemed to take a second for the spear to realize it shouldn't be moving anymore as it cut through the thick tree downward till it hit a snag. I closed my eyes and waited for the invietable and sure to be unbearable pain to shoot through my arms.

However no pain came and what I felt was a distinct lack of bones breaking. Instead what I felt was something different. Like I was being squeezed or compressed in place by an invisible force, but in a good way. I opened my eyes in bewilderment. Shouldn't I be feeling at least some pain, after all I had just fell from an unimaginably high distance that I'm sure no normal human being could shrug off. I questioned how it was possible but then decided I probably shouldn't be complaining about it.

Now that near imminent death had been avoided I could properly focus on where I was. So hanging from my two hands on the spear like a gymnast on a bar I took a look around at my surroundings. I was dangling a good twenty five feet in the air above the forest floor. The forest wasn't anything like the woods that were around and near where I lived.

Starting with how these trees were much taller and noticeably thicker as well than those from my hometown. Secondly was the color, their color was a much brighter and healthier green, a lot like an emerald, than those from where I lived. It was almost impossible how perfect they looked. Because of this scenario 3 was seeming more and more likely right now.

But it still wasn't confirmation! There was a logical explanation for all this, I hoped.

Putting these thoughts behind me and to the wayside, as right now I needed to find a safe way down from here. Because I was getting tired just hanging here like a sloth.

...

CRACK

...

Whatever god was looking down on me must have been laughing his ass off. Because as soon as this thought crossed my mind my spear decided now was the time to cut through the wood again and slide out of the notch it had created.

…

Thud

…

I landed on my back with a gasp and was left staring at the clear blue sky above me through the patches in the trees.

I layed there for a bit before I finally took the time to pull myself up. Now I could finally take a good look at myself. As soon as I got to my feet I knew something didn't feel right. For starters, I felt like I was in stilts and like someone had tied a bunch of dumbbells around my limbs. I was clearly taller than I had been before I went to bed and just breathing and moving I could tell I was a lot more in shape too. Before I hadn't been out of shape, in fact I probably would have been considered very skinny, its just I didn't have a lot of muscle and wasn't very strong. However right now I felt like an all pro athlete, lean and limber and powerful.

That second observation though, that could be explained away by the attire I was wearing at the moment. I was wearing armor. Not like police riot armor but medieval styled knight armor. I was wearing a black tight under suit that felt suspiciously like silk underneath the armor. I had a pair of metal greaves on that went up to below my knees. And as for the rest, the rest was a pair of bracers, one for each arm, a breastplate and cuisses **(A/N: armor that covers the thigh)** that went down to above my knee caps. These pieces were all leather that had been reinforced with metal underneath it in order to be more mobile when wearing it. All of the pieces except the greaves had been bright purple but had been dulled from being used so much. The breastplate also had on it a symbol on it, a pair of wings, not like the feathery wings of a bird though. No these were bare and looked more leathery, a bat perhaps?

It was surprisingly easy to move in. When did this get put on me? But this new armor wasn't the only thing I had with me.

Firstly I had this spear that had saved my life. Upon closer inspection, I could see that it was a lot more intricate than I had first thought it was. Though in my defense I was in danger of becoming a smear on the ground at the time. There were a lot of complex learning parts and near one of the hand grips were a bunch of cylindrical slots. However some were all ready filled with vials of something. I didn't think that it would be a good idea to fiddle around with them since I had no idea how this thing worked and if it broke I wouldn't be able to fix it, also I'd be stranded in the middle of who knows where with out any way to defend my self. That wasn't a comforting thought.

The last thing that was on my person was a small thin slab of metal that was split down the middle into two pieces by a yellow diamond in the direct center. It looked vaguely familiar and something in the back of mind told me I had seen this somewhere before. Hoping to find some clues about where, why, and how I was here I pressed the diamond.

As soon as I touched it suddenly expanded in size and shape to the size of a small tablet. There was now a blue semi translucent screen in between the two pieces of metal. I gasped.

Not at the display of advanced technology but rather my reflection on the screen.

That wasn't my face! The "me" staring back at me had medium length auburn hair **(A/N: Jaunes hair length) **and very dull purple eyes along with sharp features near the chin and nose. Out of ten I'd say I was at least a six.

Before I could ponder this further the tablet turned on completely and a picture of the new me came up. It was a lot clearer and was taken like a mug shot. Below was a quick bio.

…

**Name: Roy Salt**

**Age: 17**

**Sex: Male**

**Status: Candidate for Beacon**

**Height: 6'3"**

…

So I wasn't in my own body because my name definitely wasn't Roy Salt, it was ….

I can't remember. I can't remember my own name. I tried to remember my parents names too but I couldn't draw upon anything. I could remember what they were like and how they raised me but I can't remember what they looked like and what their names were. At least I could still remember all my general knowledge like education, hobbies and tv show and their plots.

So it looks like I'm Roy Salt now since I can't remember my old name. Below that quick bio was also a large sideways bar colored green, but it wasn't full there was around a tenth missing.

Things were slowly clicking into place; falling through the sky, beacon, candidacy and a green bar. I think I had a hypothesis about where I was, but it might all have been a coincidence or a result of a concussion from hitting my head on the way down from my fall.

I think that I may have found myself in the world of a popular animated web series. RWBY, which based on these 4 main heroines who were training to become their worlds equivalent of superheroes. I wasn't actually sure because I didn't really keep up to date with the show. I hadn't even watched the trailers for it, only making it up through episode 1 to episode 14, I think that it was titled Forever Fall forest or something. After that I ended up being really busy and kinda just forgot about the show really.

Of course this was all skeptical even if I had been brought to another world there was no guarantee it was the same as the RWBYverse. It could just be similar in the sense that some places shared the same names and technologies. In fact there was no way to know if I was even in the same time period of the show. Also still was the fact I still had doubts that this was even another world to begin with and not just some elaborate prank being played on me.

...

CRUNCH

...

I looked up from my tablet or scroll as it was called in RWBY to see that I wasn't alone.

Someone or Something was coming toward me. Considering the creatures that inhabited the world I was now possible apart of I tightened the grip on my spear.

A figure walked out into little opening I was in from the bushes. They were an intimidating appearance. They had their weapon in their hand and the blunt end of it looked very heavy. They had a shortcut of bright orange brown hair on their head. HE was very tall, at least 6' 6" and was built like a tank. Adding to the image was the armor he was wearing. Unlike mine which except for the greaves were all reinforced leather his was definitely made out of all metal and it still didn't seem to be affecting him that much. On his breastplate was a pair of golden bird wings, they were spreading out and really popped out next to the rest of the light gray material. The rest was trimmed in the same gold color as the symbol.

Just by looking at the way he carried himself I could he was confident in his strength and ability.

As soon as I made contact with his indigo eyes he hefted his black iron mace over his shoulder and said "Your the first person I've made eye contact with so that means your my partner." It sounded more like an order than a clarifying statement. He took a moment to inspect me with a critical look before continuing on.

"My names Cardin Winchester and you are?" He said.

* * *

**There we go Chapter one is in the books, I haven't really done many opening chapters considering this is my first ever chapter. So feel free to comment on things that could be improved upon or things like spelling or grammer issues, or just what you liked and/or disliked. This first chapter was mainly to introduce the newly minted Roy's personality, scene, and partner.**

**The MOBA mentioned in the beginning is actually a clue to what Roys Semblance is. As his armor and color scheme is based off a character from the game. (Hint: its not LoL or Dota.)**


	2. Chapter 2 - Welcome to the Jungle

Welcome to the Jungle

"My names Cardin Winchester and you are?" He said.

There was no denying it anymore I actually was in another world. That also confirmed another thing when I was. Cardin looked the same as he did in the series and claimed that I was his partner. Meaning I was in the main timeline of the show not shot ahead or backwards by a year or a hundred. The reason I was in the air must have been because I was launched by professor Ozpin off Beacons cliffs. Remind me to leave a bad yelp for that by the way, nearly died 5 minutes in two stars. Before I could continue my imaginary yelp review however I was interrupted by an annoyed looking Cardin.

"Hey are you listening to me or are you just an idiot who can't understand a word I'm saying?" asked Cardin in an irritated tone.

Realizing that I had gotten lost in my thoughts I quickly answered back. "Sorry, my names Roy Salt it nice to meet you." I decided that it was probably safer to go by my new name since it was already in the system and I would just cause unnecessary trouble by claiming Roy wasn't my real name. Especially since I didn't even know my "real" name. Besides it was kinda growing on me and it seemed to fit the theme of the show so I didn't need to worry about being noticed because of it.

Cardin just grunted and made to move towards a natural path in the forest.

"Where are you going" I called after him and started to sprint to catch back up with him.

"To the ruins of course so we can get our relics. We need to make it there before they run out, so the quicker we get there the better."

Run out. Did he mean that there weren't enough relics for everyone? "Wait what do you mean run out" I asked.

Cardin suddenly turned around with an exasperated sigh. "Did you not hear a word Professor Ozpin said, he said after we've partnered ourselves up to make our way to the northern end of the emerald forest and destroy any grimm we meet on the way there."

"But how does that have to do with being there quickly, shouldn't just being able to fight our way there be proof enough we're ready and also how do you know which way is north is." I asked still not quite getting it.

Cardin paused walking and seemed to be contemplating whether it was worth it or not to answer my question, clearly thinking I was a moron.

Until he relented and explained "just think about it like this, huntsman and huntresses are meant to both protect people and exterminate grimm, so that means you need to be fast enough to get somewhere that needs help before it's too late or track a pack of grimm from an area where they were last spotted. So if it takes you too long to get to the ruins and there are no relics left its the same as being too late to a village that was besieged by grimm. Therefore a huntsman must be both strong enough to eliminate the threat and fast enough to get there while there is something there that is still worth protecting. And to answer your dumb question i've been using the compass tool on my scroll to tell me my direction, only an idiot would wander around without knowing where to go."

* * *

Ruby sneezed all of a sudden.

"Something wrong" asked Weiss.

"I don't know, I just feel really offended right now" said Ruby suspiciously.

* * *

That made a lot of sense actually there must have been a lot of applicants applying to Beacon and there needed to be more criteria for being a huntsmen in order to narrow it down to the best candidates. Obviously Huntsman needed to be fast enough to protect the people in villages way out side of the Kingdoms.

"Come on, let's keep moving we're still a large distance away from the ruins." Cardin Ordered.

I didn't like how he kept treating me like I was some kind of idiot. But at the same time there was nothing I could do. I probably did seem like an idiot here asking all these questions that most people should have known the answer to. But that didn't mean he couldn't be a bit nicer about it. Though I probably should have expected this considering what the show portrayed him as.

Yeah I was still wondering how this was gonna work out considering I was his partner now unlike in canon. Continuing to be a Huntsman in training was even in question too as I didn't even know if I wanted to be a huntsman exactly. Like the idea of making a career out of fighting this versions of mankind's greatest enemy may seem appealing to some people I wasn't exactly sold on it.

That's why I need to first focus on making it out of this initiation alive. And the best way to do that right now was sticking with the person I knew was trained to kill the very beasts that would want to gobble me up like a five course meal.

Speaking of the grimm I'm surprised Cardin and I hadn't even seen a glimpse of them yet while we've been walking through the forest towards the ruins. In the first episode, the team RWBY and team JNPR seemed to be swarmed by grimm the second they touched the ground. Maybe it was because they were all main characters and the grimm felt some subconscious desire to throw themselves at them.

…

***GROWL***

…

Curse me and my big mouth. Coming out in front us was a pack of three beowolves. Seeing them in real life compared to the show was something else though and it was not in a good way. In the series they weren't really that scary, only kinda creepy with their poorly rendered bony masks and extra long limbs.

But looking at them right now was different. I could totally agree with why someone would be afraid of this. It wasn't just the size of it, easily having more mass than I did nor the wicked sharp claws and fangs that were on full display right now, okay maybe a little. No it was the eyes, the pure blood red eyes that seemed to glare right past you into the depths of your soul exposing your deepest fears to it. There was nothing in those eyes but raw blood lust and violence that seemed to ooze out of them and into the atmosphere.

The beowolves stalked forward keeping their distance. Beside me Cardin tensed for a second.

Before for suddenly charging forward with a roar. That seemed to bring the beowolves to life as they suddenly leapt forward to meet him. Meanwhile I was stuck there in place too afraid to move hugging my spear closely to my chest.

One of the beowolves seemed to sense my fear and veered off course to come at me instead leaving it to the other two to deal with Cardin. It leapt at me with one clawed arm reared back poised to cut me in half.

My body once again seemed to react entirely out of instinct to jump back and to the side in an attempt avoid the blow. The beowulf only scored a glancing blow instead of a solid hit. During this exchange I was once again able to feel that force of compression surround me, that I now recognized as my aura, and negate the blow, however this time it felt more like I was a magnet repelling something heavy.

I snapped back to my senses, I needed to find a way to kill this thing or I would die. The beowulf threw two more clumsy swings and each time my body would react on its own to dodge. I deduced that this body of mine still had it's training ingrained into it. Explaining why it could react to the creatures attacks. The problem was that it only worked for defense since my body only acted on its own when if felt like it was in danger. So there was no way for me to attack the beowulf and we'd be stuck in a stalemate until I ran out of energy.

That meant I would have to come up with my own plan for dealing with my opponent. Waiting for the grimm to throw another clumsily punch I moved out of the way and thrust my spear at its face ready to pierce threw it like I had the tree earlier. However it didn't go as I expected, instead of the spear going through and killing the grimm instantly by destroying it brain my spear struck and bounced off. A wave of actual pain shot through my arms.

It seemed that aura could only negate so much. Using my sudden confusion and moment of off-balance to its advantage the beowulf got a clean hit on my right leg sending me to the ground. And I once again had to rely on my bodys instincts to roll out of the way and put some distance between me and grimm. Clearly this wasn't going to be as easy as I hoped.

The beowulf didn't seem to smart so I needed to use that to my advantage and get a decisive strike against a spot where it wasn't armored. Formulating a plan in my head I charged forward. Once I got close enough I made to make another thrust at it's head.

It seemed to recognize the attack as it suddenly stepped forward to cut me off. However that was part of the plan. Knowing I wasn't strong enough to break through its armor I baited it to get close enough for an opportunity to present itself. Instead of thrusting forward like it thought I would do I sent an aura coated uppercut into its jaw snapping its head up. During this window I used my other free hand to thrust my spear into its unarmored throat piercing its neck all the way through.

It wasn't dead yet though, so putting both my hands on the spear I strained my muscles to twist the spear all the way to the right until I heard a loud *CRACK*, the sound of its neck twisting too far and snapping.

It went limp and began to dissolve into black ash. I collapsed to my knees leaning on my spear heaving air in and out. But I couldn't rest, Cardin still needed my help.

I looked over to where Cardin had been fighting the other two beowolves. I saw that one of them was lying on the ground far away slowly dissolving. It's jaw bone was missing. It's seemed that Cardin had went with a very defense oriented strategy to compensate for the numerical advantage that his opponents had over him. It would put him in less danger and help conserve more stamina and aura.

Now that it was a one on one though he had become more aggressive. Dodging a desperate swing by the Beowulf Cardin side stepped and swung his mace in a downward arc. It caught the Grimm right on the bony plate covering its head. However instead of like me where it bounced off the mace crashed right into it crushing it into a million pieces. It looked like the creature's head had exploded on contact. It was an amazing feat of strength.

We both took a second to catch our breath. Me needing it more.

Cardin growled "what took you so long? It should have taken you no time to kill that single Beowulf and then come help me when I was facing two opponents"

I wanted to retort but I knew there was nothing I could say so I bit my tongue.

"Whatever" he huffed and continued on our path north.

So we continued walking in silence for a bit and I was left to my thoughts. I had a new body and a new name reborn into the world of RWBY during the beacon initiation. As far as I could tell there was no way back so I'd be stuck here for the foreseeable future. Meaning I had to decide on what I wanted to do. I could continue training to be a huntsman, but just like before, I'm not sure if I wanted that. So I rambled in my thoughts for a bit.

Until we heard the snap of a branch. Cardin and I both stopped a drew our weapons.

CRUNCH

CRUNCH ... CRUNCH

There were definitely multiple things heading toward us from our left. We both got into defensive stances and waited … and waited … and waited. Until whatever was making the noise emerged. It wasn't grimm. Out of the shadows came three other people. Cardin and I both lowered our weapons.

The first one was on the shorter side dressed in pure leather armor on his chest with a single shoulder pad and a sleeveless shirt underneath. He had green Mohawk and baggy pants. In his hands were a pair of sharp looking daggers.

The second one was a bit taller and was wearing tan platemail over his chest, arms and legs. He had short blond hair and his eyes seemed to be naturally closed. In his hand was a short broad sword.

The last one was around my height and in platemail as well except his was dark blue colored. He had long blue hair that was slicked back and went down to his shoulders. He wielded a halberd in his hands.

The Mohawked one was the first to speak. "Looks like we're not the only ones on our way to the ruins going this direction."

"Yeah it seems like it" I answered awkwardly.

The blonde one was who decided to break the tension. "Um my names Dove Bronzewing it's nice to meet you."

"Roy Salt" I replied.

"Sky Lark" the blue haired one responded.

"Cardin Winchester" my partner grunted.

The green haired one was the last one to respond "Russel Thrush".

Of course I already knew who they were from the show I just hadn't known their names.

"Now what?" the newly named Sky asked. "Do we work together?"

Cardins response was quick "why would we do that, you'd just be competition for the limited relics"

Russel was the one who answered "yea but we can get there faster with more people, giving us all a better chance of getting a relic."

Cardin and I looked at each other. Though he seemed to be thinking about how useful I was compared to the other three. It stung a little.

"Fine" He said.

With our newly formed group we continued on our trek north. This time at a much faster pace as there was less concern about a grimm ambush. Now that I think about it this is probably what happened in the show without me. Cardin ended up heading north by himself when he couldn't find a partner and eventually met up with Dove, Russel, and Sky to form a group.

We continued at our pace for about fifteen minutes until we finally hit a large clearing with some stones in the middle. I recognized it immediately as the ruins from the show. Seeing this our group of five broke out into a sprint toward it. When we got there, I was relieved to see some pieces still there. Like in canon there were the rook and knight pieces that team RWBY and team JNPR were supposed to grab and I watched Cardin and Dove both grab one of the bishop pieces.

Different from what I suspected though was that there were multiple pawn relics around. So Cardin had been right about there being a limited number. If it was one side of a chess board then that means there were 14 pieces minus the king and queen or 7 teams. In the show team RWBY and team JNPR must have been the last teams to get a relic as there were no pawns left by the time they got there in the show.

I guess that puts into context how difficult the initiation is if the two main character teams were so close to not making it into beacon.

Speaking of main teams I could actually see a nevermore flying nearby but still a distance away from the ruins. That must of been Ruby and Weiss. I wouldn't be surprised if I started to hear the sounds of explosions ringing out from the rampages Nora and Yang are probably going through.

Turing back to the group I voiced my opinion out loud "I think we should get going before more grimm find us and we don't complete the initiation until we make it back to beacon alive." I didn't want to get caught in all the hoopla that would occur here when RWBY and JNPR got here.

There was a murmur or agreement from the group of 4.

"That's the smartest thing you've said all day" said Cardin.

Ouch, I still wanted to retort with a biting comment but there seemed to be a trend going on where I couldn't say anything back because I had no ammo to retort with. Ignoring him we began our trek back to Beacon.

The trip had been mostly silent until it was Sky who spoke up. "How many people do you think have passed the initiation already."

"My guess is that there about 4 pairs of partners already done, because there were only 4 pawns relics left and we saw the rook and knight pieces still there as well." I reasoned.

"Who cares who passed the initiation, right now we should focus on passing ourselves." Cardin proclaimed. "We can worry about those scrubs after we get back to Beacon."

"Also I've been meaning to ask, why are the three of you together? Aren't you supposed to be partnered with the first person you make eye contact with." I was confused why the three of them were working together, in the show there were only partners of two so how could there be a group of three?

Dove and Sky both looked between each other before Dove spoke. "Well when we were launched into the sky Sky and Russel ended up landing near each other so they made eye contact with each other very early on. But I landed by myself and after looking for a partner for a while i ran into Russel and Sky. I made eye contact with Russel so that made me and him partners.

"But I thought there could only pairs?" I said.

"Well Professor Ozpin only said that the person we made eye contact first with was our partner not that they couldn't already have a partner." Sky said sheepishly.

We continued on our merry way till we came across a large creek with a river flowing in the middle. The water was rushing pretty fast and was so murky I couldn't see how deep it was.

"The currents too strong for us to swim across and our armor would just cause us to sink anyway, we should head downstream till we find a place to cross or the waters are shallower." assessed Dove.

"No need to, look over there" said Russel pointing his hand toward something a bit up stream.

I followed his gaze and sure enough not to far upstream was a large log. It was covered in mud, moss and grime, it was bobbing in the water but it seemed strong enough not to get swept away by the current. However it was definitely wide enough for us to walk across without fear of falling off as long as we were careful of course, I'd guess it was a good five feet in diameter.

I was the first one to start crossing, putting one foot on the log to test the weight, it felt firm enough and so I shifted my weight further and put my other foot on. One by one Russel, Dove, Cardin, and Sky followed after me, slowly of course. We were about halfway across the twenty foot gap when the sound of a Nevermore screeched through the air.

Startled I slipped on some moss and feel down to my knees. I cursed team RWBY under my breath Ruby and Weiss must found the Nevermore.

"Ha, watch your step now" Cardin Sniggered.

"Very funny" I replied sarcastically. Getting up my hand slipped and I fell down again. Looking at my hand, I can see that its covered in mud i glanced back to where my hand had slipped.

There was something underneath the mud. So I scraped away the mud and moss covering the log. Eventually after clearing it away I was able to make out the texture of the black surface. A series of interlocking diamonds and creases. I felt something drop in my stomach and dread seized me.

"Hey what's taking so long you've been on your knees scraping away at this log for way too long we need to keep moving!" Cardin yelled from behind Dove.

A pair of red eye's appeared and pierced through the murky water to stare back at me. This wasn't a tree trunk.

Russel must of seen it too because he suddenly shouted "Guys watch out."

But it was too late by then, suddenly emerging from the water like a specter was a massive King Taijitu. It looked at us for single moment before suddenly throwing us off it by slinging its giant girth to the side. Luckily or as lucky as you can be in this kind of the position we were all thrown to the other side of the shore.

Me who was still on my knees and Cardin, Dove, and Sky who were all unprepared landed in a heap on the ground. The only one who landed on their feet was Russel who seemed to have trained in acrobatics or something as he flipped through the air and landed on his feet ready for action.

The King Taijitu had emerged fully from the water now along with the second head. Seeing Russel as the biggest threat right now it lunged right away at him which he dodged to the side to avoid it. The King Taijitu was like a hundred feet long and continually moving around trying to catch Russel in its fangs, who continued to display his acrobatic prowess jumping and weaving around its body and in the air.

Finally untangling ourselves from each other we got to our feet. Cardin and Dove charged the black grimm head. Meanwhile Sky layed down fire at the white head that was still chasing after Russel. Not only was this King Taijitu larger than even the one that Ren had fought it was definitely stronger than the one Ren fought too. If the fact that the pellets being shot at it by Sky and the hits by Russel, Dove and Cardinal didn't seem to even register into the beast was any indicator.

Almost in sync the white head of the King Taijitu struck Russell Finally, sending him flying back into the Sky while the black head swung its weight into Dove and Cardin sending them flying back as well and colliding into me.

The five of us all ended up sprawled out near one another a good distance away from the King Taijitu.

"We need a plan" I groaned. "It's too strong for us to take down individually."

"No shit Sherlock" Russel said sarcastically.

"Well do you have one then" I retorted back. It felt good to finally get something in edgewise.

Russel stayed silent.

"I have a plan" all heads turned to Cardin. "But you guys are gonna need to trust me."

I didn't like where this was going.

"A King Taijitus weakness is its eyes" explained Cardin. "So what we need to do is lure both heads into a position where their eyes are exposed."

"And how are we going to do that?" a frightened Sky asked.

"I was getting to that, so what's gonna happen is me and Dove are gonna go in there and get its attention and get it to chase us in a straight line towards Sky who's gonna pin it down with that tree over there." Said Cardin pointing towards a nearby tree.

"How am I going to to that" shrieked Sky.

"Simple, when I give the signal you're gonna blast the tree with that halberd of yours sending it tumbling down on top of the grimm. That should give Russel and Roy an opportunity to get a clean stab right through each heads eyes. "You can handle that right." He said looking at me.

I nodded grimly. His lack of faith in me was getting really annoying.

"Good let's do this" He said with a determined look on his face.

He and Dove moved toward the King Taijitu who had been watching our little group session trying to figure out what we're doing. Meanwhile Sky snuck over to the tree. That just left Russel and I standing there and we both looked at each other.

"What was that about?" Russel asked.

"I'm not to good in a fight, I can barely kill a Beowulf." I sighed dejectedly.

"Hey now there's a reason that you're trying to get into Beacon, we all have one, if we were perfect huntsman already there would be no reason to go to school." He put his hand on my shoulder as he said that. "What I'm trying to say is that you'll get better, we all will."

At that moment I didn't care how he was shown in the series, I liked him then and there and I could tell he was a good person.

A couple of shots rang out. I looked over to see that Cardin had finally goaded the King Taijitu's black head into chasing after him. Meanwhile Dove had seemingly been able to do the same thing with the white head as well. They were both running away towards us with the King Taijitu right on their tails. They were running fast but I could see the King Taijitu was faster. It was slowly gaining on them.

Just as it was a foot behind them and 10 feet away from us Cardin shouted "NOW!"

Hearing Cardins call Sky lifted his halberd above his head and swung down and to the side at the base of the tree. It went through the tree as if there was nothing there at all. The tree groaned and began to fall.

Meanwhile the King Taijitu had just caught up to Cardin and Dove as the heads jaws were about to snap them in half, they both threw themselves away and onto the ground. Just as the tree fell on the grimm. It screeched as it was suddenly caught underneath the tree trunk.

I was amazed that the plan had actually worked. But I could tell it wouldn't last the King Taijitu was merely stunned from the hit and it would break free in a couple seconds. Russel and I quickly jumped into action. I jumped towards the white head that had been chasing Dove and thrust my spear at its exposed eye. When it hit the eye it was like a water balloon popping as a bunch of black blood suddenly squirted out onto me.

The King Taijitu head continued wriggling albeit much weaker than before. I realized I hadn't actually gotten deep enough to destroy its brains so I leaned forward and pushed forward until the spear slid forward even farther and the head went limp.

I sighed a sigh of relief and looked over to Russel who had just finished pulling one of his daggers out from the black head.

"We did it" Sky cheered.

There was a chorus of whoops and laughs as the rest of the group joined in. But I didn't, something didn't feel right. I looked at the corpse of the grimm. Why wasn't it dissolving?

All of a sudden the black heads one good eye blinked. Russels daggers weren't long enough to destroy the brain and kill it.

The King Taijitu with the last of its strength tried using the element of surprise to launch itself at the closest person, Cardin intent on taking him down with it. It would have succeeded if I hadn't seen it coming. Thinking fast or perhaps not thinking at all I sprinted as fast as I could toward Cardin and shoved him out of the way.

I didn't get a chance to hear what he said after that because I suddenly felt myself get hit by the King Taijitu. Even with my aura I still felt like I had been hit by a double decker bus. I launched through the air with some crazy velocity. My vision was spinning as I flew through the air for the second time today. When I landed I heard the sound of shattering glass in my ears. That was probably my aura being depleted. I didn't stop there rather I continued to bounce along the ground till something hard hit the back of my head.

Then everything went black.

* * *

**Cardin POV**

The King Taijitu wailed as the last of its strength left its body before collapsing to the ground with an earth moving thud and began to dissolve into ashy mist.

Cardin however didn't see any of that. No he was to busy looking overwhere Roy had landed. That fool had stupidly decided to push him out of the way and take the hit in his stead.

No one moved for a second, to stunned at what had happened. Until they all seemed to snap out of it and immediately rushed over to Roy's unmoving body.

Dove reached him first and immediately grabbed on of Roy's wrists.

"Is he alright? Cardin asked worriedly.

Dove looked up toward Cardin, Sky and Russel before saying "he got a pulse so he still alive but he's completely unconscious."

Cardin let out a breath he hadn't even realized he'd been holding. Before looking back at Roy's limp form.

When Cardin first met with him and became his partner he hadn't thought much of him. He seemed weak and stupid. Asking all these stupid questions and shit. Cardin figured he either wouldn't last long at Beacon or that he would have to carry him through their four years together.

He would have never thought he'd throw himself in front of an oncoming grimm to help. He was aloy braver than he expected. Looking down at Roy ince again Cardin thought perhaps it wouldn't be so bad having him as a partner anymore.

Looking up and back to Russel, Sky, and Dove he said "we're pretty close to Beacon now but still a clip away. He reached down and picked up Roy and slung him over his shoulder (gently). "Russel you take the lead and make sure there's no more grimm up a head, Dove you cover our backsides and make sure nothing sneaks up on us, Sky you keep an eye on our flanks."

The three of them nodded and they began moving back in the direction they were heading before the King Taijitu battle.

Far away Cardin could hear the sounds of explosions and gunshots. He could only guess what was going on over there.

* * *

**Roy POV**

I'd like to say that I dreamed something normal or nothing at all but that wasn't my luck.

It started with me standing in the front of this large building in the middle of the night. It was drizzling outside. For some reason I felt really cold. I looked down at the stairs of the building I was standing on.

There was a basket on the top step out of the way of most of the rain and inside was a little bundle of cloth. I looked to the right and there was a sign, it said:

**Vale City Orphanage **

All of a sudden a woman opened one of the doors to the orphanage. She looked around to the left and right before the sound of a baby crying caused her to look down.

I hadn't even realized that there was a baby in the basket. She hurriedly picked up the basket and undid the blanket to see a baby face staring back up at her.

"Oh my god, what kind of person would leave a baby out in the rain." she gasped.

She looked around one more time before looking back at the bundle in her arms. She noticed a piece of string tied around the baby's neck. She pulled it up to see that it was a name tag. Inscribed on it was:

**Roy S.**

"Roy" the women whispered.

This was me I realized. Well the me before me.

The women brought me inside and put me down on what looked like a big dining room table before walking off to get something.

Meanwhile I the 17 year old me watched the little baby me on the table. It was like watching a movie. But it was so much more, like I was feeling and thinking everything that was going on in the moment. They were dull probably because of how young "I" was at the time.

I watched as "I" rolled over on the table all of a sudden and grabbed one of the Salt shakers on the table next to the pepper shaker. Baby me began sucking on the top of it.

The woman came back at this time with a dry towel and what looked like a set of kiddie clothes.

She looked at the baby sucking on the salt shaker and giggled. "You sure do like your Salt don't you huh" she joked.

She paused "Salt that starts with an S how about I call you Roy Salt."

The memories continued on with me watching and feeling them. Seeing little me grow his auburn hair and start walking was kinda boring. I watched "me" grow up and feeling all the things he felt. There was happiness, surprise, anger and boredom growing up but the biggest emotions were definitely loneliness and sadness. Roy growing up in the orphanage was in an awkward position he was too young so the older kids didn't hang out with him but too old for the other kids. Leaving him to spend most days by himself in front of the tv.

Thoughts wondering why he had been abandoned seemed to surface a lot. Watching this made me angry "how could anyone do this to their own kid" I thought.

This continued on until he was ten years old. Things like being educated and learning to speak happened in between. That's when something big happened. The 10 year old Roy was watching the news by himself on the tv when all of a sudden the channel was interrupted. A young white haired woman appeared on the screen.

"_Hello I'm Lisa Lavender and I'm here reporting live from downtown Vale where a Goliath has suddenly appeared wrecking everything in its path and causing untold havoc. I am told there numerous people injured."_

All of a sudden a blur came out from somewhere behind the camera, knocking right into the Goliath and sending it skidding back. When the dust settled a figure could be seen standing. He had graying hair and a well toned body. There was a small moustache on his face. He was dressed in a tight fitting red coat with gold trimming and charcoal black pants with large black boots on. In his hands was what looked like a large axe.

"_My goodness it seems one of Beacons very own professors has been sent to deal with this crisis, Professor Port of Beacon academy."_

I blanched "what!"

Port suddenly transformed his axe into a blunderbuss and sent a few rounds at Goliath's head. It merely shook them off.

"_Ha it looks like I'm going to have to get hands dirty here aren't I!" _Port could be heard saying by the camera.

The Goliath seemed to hear Ports challenge and suddenly charged at him. Instead of moving out of the way he transformed his blunderbuss back into an axe and placed it back on his back. The He got into a stance arms flexed and hands out.

"Was he insane," I thought.

When the Goliath got to him he shot his hands out and grabbed the pair of tusks that were attempting to skewer him. Port was pushed back holding back the Goliaths charge. But I could see that the Goliath was also slowing down or rather being slowed down by Port! A plume of dust shot up and when it cleared Port and the Goliath were in a stalemate in the middle of the road.

What happened next nearly caused my eyes to bulge out of their skull. With a roar Port suddenly began lifting the Goliath in the air by it tusks, the Goliath seeing this flailed it's legs uselessly in the air. Swinging the gigantic creature up and above his head Port slammed it back down on the road behind him cracking the concrete and trapping the Goliath on its back. One hand still grabbing a tusk Port reached behind him and pulled his axe out. With a mighty swing aimed at the soft throat he swiftly decapitated the Beast.

Lisa Lavender was hysterical "_did you see that …" she exclaimed. _Whatever she said next was lost in the chorus of cheers that followed. People began to surround Port and he could be heard shouting "it no problem, it's all in a day's work to protect my city from the vile grimm."

I didn't need to look at the 10 year old Roy. I could feel the shock and awe coming from him without even having to experience it. That day was the day the young me decided that he had wanted to be a hunter.

The problem was that the orphanage didn't have the money to send him to Signal or one of the other huntsmen prep schools. But that didn't stop "me". Instead of giving up he worked hard everyday to train himself and self teach himself how to fight with a weapon. Taking odd jobs around that part of the city for the next six years to pay for a weapon, getting his aura unlocked and lastly to pay for the Beacon Baseline Exam. The Beacon Baseline Exam was for people who didn't go to a prep school and needed to be assessed whether or not they were qualified to be a part of the official initiation.

Needless to say "I" had managed to pass that exam. I had to say watching this me work so hard to achieve his dream was very inspiring. The "dream" I had been apart of came to a stop with a 17 year old Roy getting off the Beacon airship and looking up at Beacon itself.

It felt like I had lived an entire lifetime even if I knew it skipped over the unimportant parts. I started to feel more one with the body I was in. So thinking about it now, I believe I'm going to continue training to be a huntsman. After seeing how hard "I" worked to get here I felt it wouldn't be right to give up now.

And that's when I woke up.

* * *

The first thing I felt when waking up was a large pain in the back of my head. I reached behind and winced when I felt a large bump. What happened? Oh right, I got full body tackled by a King Taijitu. I looked around at where I was. I was in some kind of auditorium. It was the place where the teams were announced at the end of the initiation. I was seated on a bench and not to far away from me standing in a group was Cardin, Dove, Russel, and Sky. Sensing eyes on him Dove turned around to see me looking at them. The rest of the group paused and looked over where Dove was looking at and their eyes rested on me. They all began to walk over.

"Are you okay" asked Cardin.

Did my ears deceive me or did I hear a bit of worry in his voice. The rest of them were all looking at me with some concern.

"I'm fine my head just hurts a bit" I answered. I neglected to tell them about the dream I had. That seemed like something I should keep to myself. "How long was I out?"

"An hour give or take, we carried you back to Beacon while you were unconscious." Said Sky.

They did that for me. "Thanks" I said.

"It's not like you weighed that much anyway," said Cardin. Though I could tell by his tone he was playfully teasing."

I smiled at that. So he was the one who carried me. I guess he cared more than he let on. "What are we waiting for anyway."

"We're still waiting for two teams, we were the 5th and 6th pairs to arrive and there's only 14 pairs. While you were out pairs 7-12 ended up making it here." Answered Russel.

I had a funny suspicion I knew who those two teams were though. "So what now?"

"Man your just full of questions aren't you" jested Sky.

"In my defense I wasn't awake to hear any of the instructions" I said.

"As soon as the remaining teams get here we're gonna get sent to the showers to get changed into our new beacon uniforms." Recounted Dove.

A group of about 20 people walked by all downcast expressions on their faces.

I watched them go by.

Russel saw my look "those are the candidates who didn't get to the ruins in time, so the professors monitoring us went out and got them. Since the bullheads don't leave till later tonight their forced to wait like the rest of us except they won't be getting into the school.

That sucked. After realizing how hard I worked to get into Beacon I don't know if I could handle being forced to watch other people get in besides me. A girl with blonde hair looked over and saw me sitting on a bench with me and Cardins bishop piece. She gave me a fierce glare and walked away.

*BAM*

The auditorium doors swung open and all heads looked towards the figures standing in the door frame. The first one to walk in had a confident smile on her face and long glowing blond hair that reached down to her arms which holstered her shotgun gauntlets, Yang Xiao Long.

She was followed by a girl who had the palest skin I'd ever seen and long white hair tied up in a ponytail. In her hand was something that looked like a fencing sword, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company Weiss Schnee.

Stalking behind her was a girl with long black hair and a bow on her head. She was in black and white. I couldn't see any weapon on her. She wasn't mentioned much in the episodes I watched but I knew her name was Blake Belladonna.

Lastly was the main character Ruby Rose who nervously walked in trying to hide from all the attention on her. At her hip Crescent Rose was in its compacted form. Unlike the rest of her soon to be team she had short red and black hair.

A second group of four walked in after them. There was Jaune Arc who I knew pretty well from the show. Behind him was a short orange haired girl with a hammer on her back and a taller black haired boy with a pink strip in his long hair. Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren respectively. However the one that everyone was focusing on was the last girl.

She was really tall for a girl. She had bright red hair in a ponytail and was wearing what looked like bronze armor. In one hand she had a round shield and in the other a spear not too dissimilar from my own but red and orange instead of black and green. I knew her from memories I had watching her fights on tv from the orphanage as well as my memories from earth, Pyrrha Nikos.

The eight of them all walked over to one of the benches that littered the auditorium.

*BRTZZ*

The intercom buzzed on and Professor Ozpin voice sounded over it.

"_Attention all candidates who have passed the Beacon initiation please report to the showers to receive a Beacon uniform and change."_

That was our queue. Cardin, Dove, Sky, Russel and I all made our way to the showers relics in hand. When we got there one of the beacon staff members handed us the same uniform from the show. We all walked over to the temporary lockers and luckily I remembered my locker combo from that dream I had.

I slipped off my armor and looked at it. It was definitely gonna need to be washed since it was still covered in mud and grime from the initiation. I looked to my left to see that Dove, Sky and Cardin were in similar situations.

I put them in the locker and looked at my weapon. I had spent the bulk of the Lien I saved up on it. I wasn't gonna lie that parts of it were designed after Pyrrhas. Since hitting my head and seeing this body's past memories I knew that there was a button that activated dust vials in it, I wish I had known that when I was fighting for my life. Secondly I knew its name _Greed _it was named after the fact that it was what I spent the most Lien on, as well as the myriad of features it had, also because I had greedily wanted to become the most famous hunter around at the time.

Putting it in the locker as well I grabbed the uniform and put it on it was a little tight but not too uncomfortable. It seemed that the rest of the group was still getting changed so I grabbed the bishop relic and walked towards the exit.

On the way out I saw Ren and Jaune talking about something, probably Ren explaining the team formation process to Jaune. I exited the locker room and looked across the hallway to see the girls locker room door. It looked like I was the first one done.

I turned right to head back toward the auditorium and walked right into someone. We both fell to the floor. I got up and I looked across to see the person I had accidentally walked into. He was a good 5 inches shorter than me and had grey shaggy hair and a gray tunic. But what stuck out about him was the pair of wolf ears on his head and bushy tail behind him, a faunus.

"Sorry I didn't see you there" I apologized and offered him a hand up.

He looked at it before swatting it away and getting up on his own. He looked at the Bishop piece in my hand and scowled. "I know who you are, you were that unconscious guy who got carried in." He spat.

Sensing the tension I took a step back "hey easy there man are you okay." I tried to say nicely.

"Of course I'm not okay, I didn't get a relic and you did after being carried by another group of people." He snarled.

"Hey I worked hard to get here just like you — I was cut off

"You don't deserve that relic, someone like me does. If you weren't here today I would have been fast enough to get one." He angrily said.

I didn't like where this was going. I'm seriously worried he might try and fight me in the halls and I didn't have _Greed _on me.

"Oh and who's fault is it for being to slow today then?" A loud voice came from behind me.

I looked behind me and relief flooded through me, it was Cardin. I'd never thought I'd be happy to see him but I was grateful the entire intimidating 6' 6" frame of him.

"If you think he's not good enough for Beacon" he continued "Then your saying I'm not good enough for it too. So are you saying you're better than me" He practically growled the last part.

The Faunus took a step back and seemed to be contemplating what to say. At that moment Sky, Dove, and Russel walked out of the locker room as well and took a look between me and Cardin and the Faunus. He saw them and walked away, not before shooting one last glare though.

"That's right run away with your tail in between your legs you mangy mutt." Cardin shouted after him.

Dove came up to us, "What was that about?" He asked.

Cardin answered, "Just some sore loser upset that he wasn't good enough to swipe a relic."

"What did he expect that he'd just get ours." Laughed Russel.

Suddenly I felt a pair of eyes on me. I turned around to see Blake glaring back at me. When she saw me looking back she huffed and started making her way to the auditorium. What was her problem?

* * *

The auditorium was mostly empty when we got there. Only a cluster of people who didn't pass were in the corner. On stage was Professor Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch. They were discussing something. Professor Ozpin glanced at us as we sat down, but quickly went back to his conversation.

The room slowly filled up with everyone in their beacon uniforms. Ozpin then walked up to the center of the stage and began an announcement "Congratulations to everyone who passed our rigorous initiation, for today you will be taking your first big step towards becoming fully licensed huntsmen by becoming part of a team. And to those not so fortunate today remember there are still chances to apply to another academy."

With that he began calling up names to come on stage to receive their teams and team leaders. I wonder how he will handle my group since there wasn't a group of five people in the series. Would he split one of us off to join a new team? If it had been the beginning of the day, I wouldn't have minded. But after going through the entire initiation with them I didn't think it would be fair to split it up.

"Cardin Winchester, Russel Thrush, Dove Bronzewing, Sky Lark, and Roy Salt." Ozpin announced.

We all made our way up to the stage and formed a line in the order he called us.

"Due to weird circumstances this is the first time we've actually had someone end up having two partners." Ozpin admitted to Russel, "But I don't see how that should affect team building after seeing how well you worked with both of your partners. From now on you will be known as team CRDLS, team "Cardinals" lead by Cardin Winchester."

I wasn't surprised that Cardin was named leader, he was the one who came up with the plan against the King Taijitu and was the team leader in the show. We sat down and watched the rest of the teams be formed namely teams JNPR and RWBY being lead by Jaune and Ruby.

After he finished announcing the teams Ozpin said, "everyone please report back to your dorms which listed on scroll and get a good night's sleep, you all have a big day tomorrow."

* * *

Our dorm was in the top floor just like in canon. But this time Professor Goodwitch came and told us we were being given it because it was the largest room.

Opening the door and coming inside I could see that the dorm was very plain with white walls and a brown hardwood floor and a red rug in the middle. There were five beds spread around the room. Throwing my stuff on the one closest to the bathroom and grabbing a change of PJs I called first dibs on the shower.

The shower was nice and hot just what I needed after several near death experiences today. It washed off all the dirt and grime that accumulated over the day. Stepping out I felt like a new man. I looked into the mirror, I had abs now that was a plus.

I walked out and Sky entered the bathroom right after. Dove, Russel, and Cardin were all unpacking so I went over and laid down on my bed. Dove went in the shower next, then Cardin, and Russel did last. I unpacked all my belongings which wasn't a lot of course.

By the time everyone was done we were all getting ready for bed until Cardin coughed a couple times.

"Today was a good day guys and we're only gonna get better." He said, "To being the best team in Beacon."

"Here here" we all repeated. Then we all went to bed.

I thought about the hectic day I had, from falling out of the sky having no idea where I was, to fighting the King Taijitu, to regaining this body's past memories and to becoming a part of team CRDLS.

I looked around at the sleeping forms of Dove, Russel, Sky and Cardin. Maybe things were gonna be a lot better than I thought they'd be.

* * *

**Authors Notes: And that's a wrap for Chapter 2. This chapter was pretty fun to write. This was my first attempt at solo and team fights so tell me things that I could improve upon. **

**I hope I did a good of showing Cardins change from being annoyed with his partner to actually caring about him.**

**As for Roy's Semblance the name of his weapon is also a hint toward the character he's based off.**


	3. Chapter 3 - Paradise City

Paradise City

I woke up with a start. Where was I? Right I was in dorm room now. It's really only been a day yet it already feeling like I've been here for years.

I took out my scroll it was 7 in the morning meaning that my team and I only had to hours to get ready for our first day at Beacon.

Speaking of my team I looked around the dimly lit room. I could make out the forms of my new teammates. Team CRDLS as it was called. I had gotten the bed closest to the bathroom. I looked over to my partner Cardin. He had taken the bed closest to the window, I could see his chest moving up and down. But more so I could hear him, he was snoring so loud I'm surprised no one else has woken up.

To the left of him was Russel. He was drooling on his pillow, spread eagled with one leg under the covers and the other on top.

To the right of Cardin was Sky. Sky was hugging his pillow and snoring quietly.

Then there was a Dove who was on the other side of the room across from me. He was on his back stiff as a log eyes closed as always. He wasn't moving one bit and i couldn't even see his chest moving nor did he snore. It was like watching a corpse.

I slid out of bed and grabbed my uniform. We still had two hours to get to class so I was gonna use it to make a good first impression on my teachers. Taking a quick cold shower to wake myself up I combed my hair and put some deodorant on.

When I walked out to the main room I saw that Russel was awake and wiping the groggy ness from his eyes. From the corner of my eye I saw get up like a zombie only moving his upper body to a right angle. A shiver went down my spine.

Figuring now would be a good time to wake up Cardin and Sky I cleared my throat before loudly saying, "rise and shine everybody it a new day."

"Five more minutes." Sky groaned.

"What happened to all that talk about being the best team in Beacon last night." I reminded.

"Yeah in for that to happen one must well rested though." Cardin retorted as he got out of bed.

"How much time do we have left before class starts." Asked Dove.

"An hour and thirty minutes give or take." Russel answered.

"That gives us plenty of time to grab breakfast down at the cafeteria." Cardin said clearly thinking with his stomach.

After the entirety of the team was finished washing up we head down to the cafeteria. On the way there the sound of Hammers and saws could be heard. They must be in the bunk bed idea. Then we made it to the dinning, it looked just like the one from the show. It had the long benches and tables where students mainly sat with their teams and friends while waiting in the morning or during lunch.

"So what class do you think we have first today." Sky asked in between bites of of scrambled eggs.

"Grimm studies with Professor Port." Russel answered pausing to take a sip of milk before continuing, "Then history with Professor Oobleck, then science with Professor Peach, and lunch before ending the day with combat class with Professor Goodwitch."

Looking at my scroll I saw that we only had 15 minutes before class started and I shoveled the rest of my breakfast into my mouth before turning my tray in and walking to class the rest of Team CRDLS not to far behind.

When we got into the lecture room about three fourths of the students were there already. We took the back seats on my suggestion. I knew how boring Port could be so it would be best to get seats that he couldn't see us well from.

I looked down at the Professor in question who was busy arranging some papers on his desk. I country help but sigh in disappointment. What had happened to the awe inspiring legend that was the reason young me had to decided to become a huntsman in the first place. Instead he'd aged greatly, now having completely gray hair with his mustache even larger than before. Obviously his figure had changed as well but I didn't want to go into details about that.

The bell rang as team JNPR and RWBY jumped through the door landing in a heap. I didn't realize until being a fellow student now how annoying it was to see them be late for everything.

Professor Port seemed to choose to ignore their late entrance and start his lesson, "Monsters! Deeeemons... Prowlers of the night! Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names, but I merely refer to them as prey! Ha-ha!"

His attempt at humor garnered no reaction so he coughed and continued his speech. "And you shall too, upon graduating from this prestigious academy! Now, as I was saying: Vale, as well as the other three kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world! Our planet is absolutely teeming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces! And that's where we come in." His speech devolved into some story from his youth about capturing a Beowulf as a kid and bringing it back to his village to be celebrated as a hero.

I'm not gonna lie I dozed off a few times. The man had such a way with words, I swear his semblance must have been the ability to turn anyone who heard him stir crazy. No wonder he's killed so many grimm, they probably offend themselves after hearing him recite his accomplishments.

I looked over at Dove who seemed to actually be paying attention, he was looking straight at the Professor Port looking like the perfect student. I applauded him on is studiousness I don't even think Weiss was as attentive as Dove was being right now.

*Snore*

It was silent but I could hear it if I listened hard enough. Disbelief and another feeling flowed through me. Disbelief that he was able to hide that he was sleeping in class so well and the other emotion I realized was pure green envy. "That is so unfair, why couldn't I do that."

My jealousy was interrupted by a loud voice yelling "I do, sir!"

It seemed the scene with Weiss and the Boarbatusk was about to take place. Beside me Dove tensed for a second meaning he woke up. He looked around before looking back to Professor Port oblivious to the fact that I knew his secret.

Weiss came back with her weapon Myrtenaster in hand.

"Alright." Port shouted, "let the match … Begin"

He opened the cage and out ran a Boarbatusk. It immediately charged Weiss from the get go. The battle played out mostly the same as canon with Weiss struggling to penetrate its armor and getting annoyed with Ruby. After using her semblance to give herself an opening she finished the grimm off with a stab through the stomach.

"Bravo! Bra-vo! It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true Huntress-in-training!" Port congratulated Weiss, "I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned readings, and... stay vigilant! Class dismissed!"

Never in my life had I been so happy to hear those words.

On our way to Ooblecks class Cardin commented, "Did you see that, Schnee looked ready to tear her teammates throat out."

"Yea I thought we were about to have a serious cat fight on our hands there." Joked Russel.

"Yea you don't see any problems with our team like that right? Cardin laughed before quickly adding "you guys don't have any problem with me being team leader right?"

"Of course not." I answered truthfully.

"No complaints here." Said Dove.

"I'm fine with it." Responded Sky.

"Yea I do, you're really loud and annoying" said Russel.

Cardin playfully punched him in the shoulder.

"Well they better get their act together quickly or there gonna fall behind very quickly." Said sagely.

I wasn't that worried about them I knew they figure it out soon enough.

Professor, I mean Doctor Ooblecks classroom was pretty much the same as Professor Ports. However instead of a golden bust and various diagrams of grimm his was littered with papers and maps of the world of Remnant.

Team CRDLS took seats at the top row again and brought our notebooks out. A blur to fast for me to track shot through the teachers door. It was Doctor Oobleck in his lab coat, spectacles and loose tie. In his hand was a mug of coffee that was already halfway empty.

The rest of the students walked in as well even RWBY and JNPR came in on time.

Oobleck took the time to wait for everyone to get seated before beginning. "Good morning class I am Doctor Oobleck and I will be your professor this year for history. Now before you go dismissing this as a useless class just meant to to take up space in your schedule I ask you to take a second to think about why it is important we should learn about our history. Then raise your hand and share out loud."

Blake rose her hand first.

"Yes Miss Belladonna" Oobleck asked.

"It's important to learn our history in order to understand other cultures and races around the world in order to create peace and equality."

Beside me a Cardin Snorted and raised his hand.

"And what about you Mr. Winchester." Oobleck stated.

"We study history to understand the failures of those before us and making sure not to be as foolish as them." He answered confidently.

Oobleck looked between the two of them before responding, "while those are two ways of looking at it, the main reason is that the past defines us as a people and by losing touch with who we are we can't ever truly move forward in a meaningful way."

He proceeded, "with that said please open up you textbooks to page 247 on the founding of Mantles monarchy…"

The class passed with no more notable things happening. We were given readings to do and that was it.

Moving to Professor Peach's class was more of the same. She was a woman of average height with light pink hair and large glasses. She spoke with a bit of an accent as well. It was mainly on the science of dust, aura and semblances. It was actually pretty fascinating.

The bell rang signaling the end of the class and the start of our lunch period.

Walking into the cafeteria was a lot different than it was in the morning. In the morning it was relatively quiet and empty, but now it was packed and bustling with activity.

I spotted an open table and quickly sat down there with my lunch. I started to absentmindedly look at my scroll going down through the news, it seemed that that thief Ruby had stopped in the first episode had stepped up his game. The caption read:

**Roman Torchwick Still at Large Makes it Away with Another Cache of Dust.**

The rest of my team joined me at the lunch table. Cardins plate was stacked with food probably the fuel he needed to use that massive frame of his.

"Today was so boring man, at least we get to end it with something exciting." Sky said.

"Yeah we get to show off our skills and start off on the right foot." Dove said.

"Totally, we need to start off at the top of the class rankings." Russel added.

"Class rankings?" I queried.

"Wait you don't know about the Beacon team rankings?" Asked Russel in disbelief.

"He doesn't know anything don't you get that!" Said Cardin with a piece of chicken in his mouth.

I glared at him before motioning for Russel to continue.

"It's the rankings of all teams for each year." Russel explained excitedly, "so we'd be on the first years ranking list."

"How do they decide these rankings?" I asked. This sounded really important.

"It's mainly based on every teams combat record in Professor Goodwitches class." Russel replied.

My face sunk at this. I don't think that we'd be able to compete against the likes of team RWBY and especially team JNPR even with Jaune weighing them down. I would probably drag the team down a lot as well. Ever since I had that dream I'd seemingly remembered all the training I had done up to beacon and therefore was a lot more skilled than I was in the initiation.

But that didn't automatically put me at the top of the class by any stretch. I was self taught in most aspects while everyone else here had all gone through huntsman prep schools. I was in the middle of the pack at best, definitely the worst one on my team.

Russel caught it right away and hastily added, "it also factors in the teams grades and how well they perform on the field missions too."

A hand suddenly clamped on my shoulder. It was Cardin "besides if your having trouble keeping up you'll have us watching your back. And if push comes to shove will beat you daily in the ring till you catch up." He said that with such confidence like there was no other option but succeeding, failure wasn't even a thought.

I smiled at that. They were right I had my team at my back I didn't need to worry about bringing them down.

With that the lunch bell rang signaling that it was time to start heading to the sparring ring.

When we got there team RWBY and team JNPR were already there. They must have been really excited for this.

"Oh right class, today we will be starting our combat course I expect your full and undivided attention because everything I will be saying will pertain to you and your classmates safety. Do I make myself clear." She snapped her riding crop for emphasis.

I subconsciously straightened myself out hearing this. Her tone left no room for argument.

When everyone nodded she resumed, "Good, now if you all would take out your scrolls and head to your aura management bar." She paused, "you will now see the amount of aura you possess."

When taking out my scroll and looking at my aura I saw that in the bottom right corner there was now a number.

"It should be noted that the amount of aura you have does not stay the same. While it is true that some people are born with naturally more aura than others, the amount of aura you have will grow as you grow older. It can also be increased through training and keeping in top physical condition." Professor Goodwitch said.

The number on my scroll read 1200. I looked over at the rest of my teammates. Russel's scroll said 1055, Sky's said 1100, Doves said 1145, and unsurprisingly Cardin had the most at 1360.

"The average 17 year old huntsman in training has aura numbering around 1050, but this does not mean people with more aura are better than those who have less. Skill will trump aura 100% of the time. This is why it is important to hone your skills to be prepared for anything." Professor Goodwitch explained.

"Today we will be having two on two sparring matches and after each match I will grade you on your performance, as well as explain what you can improve on and what you did well. Any questions? She announced.

A flurry of hands were raised. Professor Goodwitch sighed and said "and yes this will count toward your team ranking." All of the hands went down.

"To begin will Weiss Schnee and Ruby Rose of team RWBY and Dove Bronzewing and Cardin Winchester of team CRDLS please head to the locker rooms to get changed into their combat attire and report back here to the center of the ring." Professor Goodwitch called.

"Good Luck." I said to Cardin and Dove as they got up to get changed.

"Ha, like I need any of that." Cardin boasted.

I didn't want to tell him that he was probably out matched here. Weiss was a very skilled and there was a reason that ruby got into Beacon two years early.

They came back to the ring about five minutes later. Cardin and Dove in their armor and Ruby and Weiss in their combat skirts. Their auras were projected on to the big screen.

Weiss was listed at 1000 and Ruby was listed with 840. Hers was probably so low because she was two years younger than the rest of the students. So technically that put Cardin and Dove at the advantage in aura. But as Miss Goodwitch said earlier it probably wouldn't make a difference as the more skilled duo would come out on top.

"Let's go Dove!" Sky cheered out to them.

"Go Cardin." Shouted Russel after him.

"Yeah show them who's boss!" I voiced my support for my team as well.

"You got this sis, kick their asses!" Yang yelled. It seemed she heard us and was voicing her own support for her team.

"Go team RWBY!" Balked joined in as well.

As soon as both pairs were on opposite ends of the ring Miss Goodwitch Shouted "BEGIN."

Almost immediately Weiss shot forward with a glyph. Ruby was just left standing there mouth open.

"Wait Weiss, we need to form a strategy." She called after her. After seeing that Weiss didn't hear her or simply didn't listen she used her semblance to rush in as well.

Cardin and Dove nodded at each other before moving forward. Dove met Weiss's strike with his sword. They were in a stalemate for a second before Doves superior strength ended up winning out and he threw the blow to the side. Before responding with a one handed strike of his own.

Weiss blocked that but clearly wasn't expecting the free hand punch aimed at her solar plexus. She gasped as her eyes widened and she jumped back to try and catch her breath. Dove was hot on her tail trying to prevent her from recovering but he met a solid glyph when moving forward.

Meanwhile Cardin was circling around Ruby deflecting sniper shots with his mace while moving closer in. Ruby was trying to use her range to her advantage. All of a sudden with a burst of speed unfitting of a man his size he leapt forward and swiped at Ruby.

Her eyes widened as she ducked beneath the blow, then back flipped to put some distance eyeing him more warily than she had before.

From up in the stands I watched, eyes glued to the fight. Cardin and Dove had had the initial advantage using the initial confusion by Weiss and Ruby to draw first blood and keep the pressure on them.

But I could tell that the tides were turning in team RWBY's favor. Weiss was in the yellow when it came to aura but now that she was using her glyphs more effectively she was taking more off of dove than he was taking off of her. For his part aDove was using every dirty trick in the book to even it out. Punching and kicking during every exchange of swords trying to keep Weiss on her feet and off balance using the fact she wasn't used to such a barbaric form of fight to his advantage.

Cardin simply wasn't fast enough to score a strong hit on Ruby who was consistently staying out of his range while sending sniper shots at him constantly that was chipping at his aura slowly but surely. They were both still in the green though.

Beside me Sky and Russel were screaming at the top of their longs.

"Beat those girls brains in guys." Encouraged Russel.

"Don't let them get in rhythm." Screamed Sky.

Blake and Yang were doing the same as well.

"Knock him on his ass Ruby." Yelled Yang.

"Do team RWBY proud." Cheered Blake.

I didn't see how they could when this. At the rate it was going Cardin was eventually gonna be eliminated without doing anything to Ruby and then it b in team RWBY's favor.

Cardin was now entering the yellow and so was Dove. Weiss was about half and Ruby was still practically full.

Suddenly Dove was put on the defensive continually backing up to avoid being skewered by Myrtenaster.

I would have panicked at this moment but looking at Doves face he seemed calm and collected. Why?

I racked my brain. Cardin and Dove must have some kind of plan I reckoned. But what?

I looked down at the battle field. Dove was being pushed towards Cardin and Ruby. No wait a minute Dove was clearly the one making the movements toward them and just leading Weiss to think she had him on the run. She didn't seem to notice though.

However it seemed that Ruby had because as soon as she noticed Dove and Weiss so close to her and Cardin she screamed. "Weiss wait!"

But it was too late for her. Cardin must have been waiting for this as he pivoted from his position facing Ruby in a flash. Leaping forward mace reared behind him like a baseball bat he landed in front of her.

Startled Weiss attempted to form a glyph in front of her to act as a shield but Cardin was faster.

Putting his full weight in the swing of his mace he caught Weiss in the side of her face. She was sent flying instantly like a rocket. Up and out of the ring she went, her aura in the red.

"Miss Schnee aura has entered the red as well as being knocked out of the ring. Normally either of these two outcomes would eliminate her from the match." Professor Goodwitch announced.

"Yeah great hit Cardin!" I Shouted.

Trying to use the moment that Cardins back was turned to her Ruby went in for a heavy slash with _Crescent Rose_ but found herself blocked by Dove.

She jumped back to avoid another swing by Cardin.

Putting more distance between her and Cardin she switched back to her sniper mode to try and lay more shots at him like before.

Before she could aim however a bullet threw her shot off. Smoke was coming from Doves sword. Unlike Cardin, Dove actually had a ranged weapon option.

Right now Cardin was at about 40% aura and Dove was at 35% aura. On the other hand, Ruby was sitting at about 80% aura.

The game very quickly devolved into a game of cat and mouse with Cardin chasing around Ruby with his mace. Meanwhile Dove shot at her from range. Every time that Ruby would try and sneak in to take out Dove at close range Cardin would step in to ward her off.

Slowly Ruby aura was being peppered down.

70%

60%

50%

40%

At 30% she started to get really desperate. Seeing that she needed to take out Dove in order to have a shot at winning this match Ruby side stepped before activating her semblance and speeding towards Dove.

I held my breath.

She reappeared behind Dove _Crescent Rose _was reared to reap the last bit of aura that Dove had left to send him into the red. She swung.

But Dove once again showing superb body control side steeped and grabbed Ruby rest.

Ruby's eyes widened as dove proceed to throw her to the ground over his back.

When she opened eyes after hitting the ground she saw a shadow fell across her. Looking up, Cardin was there a manic grin on his face with his mace raised above his head.

Ruby's eyes bulged out of their skull.

Cardin swung down, the head of his mace colliding with Ruby's stomach. The floor cracked underneath the force of the blow and Ruby aura finally reached the red.

"And Miss Rose's aura has dropped to red meaning that she is eliminated. That mean that Cardin and Dove of team CRDLS have one this match.

I finally let go of the breath I was holding. Beside me Russel and Sky went Ballistic.

"CRDLS"

"CRDLS"

"CRDLS"

We ended up all chanting. All of a sudden Ruby got up and ran to the nearest trash can outside of the ring before keeling over and puking profusely into it.

"Ruby!" Yang yelled before jumping down to run over to her. "Are you okay she asked."

"Yeah just a little woozy." Ruby mumbled weakly before turning green again and throwing up in the trash once more.

Yang just turned and glared at Cardin. Who was just standing there in the middle of the ring Smuggly Smiling.

He had every right to be gloating in my opinion. After all, no one had been expecting for him to win. Not even myself his partner I thought ashamed. I ought to have more faith in him.

"That was a very good display of teamwork Mr. Winchester and Mr. Bronzewing. Watching your fight I could tell you had a well thought out strategy and very good trust in one another." Praised Professor Goodwitch.

"The same cannot be said for you two." Miss Goodwitch said turning toward Ruby and Weiss who had stalked over to the bench with the rest of their team. "You two rushed in without coming up with a good plan of attack and refused to trust each other when it came to attacking with each other unlike your opposition."

Weiss looked down at her feet in shame and Ruby didn't meet her eyes.

"While by yourselves you were able to hold your own admirably, if this was to happen in the field the results could be catastrophic." Goodwitch commented, "the reason for your loss today was your overall lack of cooperation."

"You are all dismissed, head back to the locker room to get changed and report back to the stands to watch the rest of the matches." Professor Goodwitch instructed.

When Cardin and Dove returned they were met by a series of whoops, high fives and pats on the back.

"You guys totally showed those high and mighty girls whose boss." Russel exclaimed.

"The way you smacked Schnee out of the ring was awesome." Sky said in awe.

"You guys had me worried in the middle there but it seems that you had it under control the entire time." I put my two cents in.

Cardin seemed to swell up with the praise. "Well that what happens when you underestimate your opponents." He said just loud enough for team RWBY to hear.

Blake scowled and Yang grit her teeth at the comment, while Ruby and Weiss both looked down at there knees.

The rest of the matches weren't nearly as entertaining as the first. Two of the teams that gathered pawn relic faced off it was pretty close till one team was able to corner an opposing team member eliminate them and turn it int 1.

The other one was Pyrrha and Jaune vs two other students, it didn't matter how bad Jaune was because he literally had to do nothing but watch as Nikos literally wiped the floor with the two opponents against her. She barely lost any aura!

"Thank you all for your participation and cooperation today." Professor Goodwitch Thanked, "You are all dismissed and have the rest of the day to do what you see fit. The first results of this year's first years rankings will be posted by the Beacon staff later today. The rankings will change every three days after today."

We walked out of the Combat Class into the open courtyard.

"I say we celebrate our victory with a celebratory trip to the Dinning Hall and eat like champions." I suggested. I was damn proud of my team. Like I knew that RWBY was the main characters but beating them today felt great, like knowing we could do something as well.

"I agree with Roy, I'm starving after so much fighting." said Cardin.

"Man all you do is think with your stomach." Joked Sky.

"Hey I deserve it after showing those arrogant girls that just because they got moved up two years and are from the SDC that we're not just gonna let them walk all over us like they own the place." Cardin pridefully proclaimed. "It's time they learn that we're the best team in Beacon."

"I thought that was team JNPR." Said Russel. "They have Nikos after all."

"Then we'll show them that when we face them. She's only one person after all." Cardin said.

We went to the dining hall and grabbed trays full of food. I piled up a sundae with sprinkles while Sky had a bowl of pudding. Cardin was literally eating an entire cake by himself with Russel being stuck with a single slice. Dove opted to simply have a giant cup of Atlas Cola.

The entire time we joked and laughed reveling in our good first day at Beacon Academy. The merriment lasted all the way until we got into our dorm room 2 hours before Beacons curfew.

Cardin and Dove took the first showers since they were still sweaty and smelly from their match today. Then Russel, then me, Then Sky. We were all sitting in bed doing the readings that Professors Port, Oobleck and Peach assigned us when our scrolls suddenly went off.

Immediately everyone dropped what they were doing to crowd around Cardin who had his scroll put first.

"I think we have a good shot at being ranked first." Said Sky.

"I think so as well, but they might give it to JNPR after how well they trounced their opponents." I said.

"But it's a team ranking if anything Jaune was a hindrance in the match, besides you could tell there opposition wasn't up to snuff." Argued Cardin.

"Who cares about that open it up" said Russel.

Cardin opened the notification from Beacons online school paper.

At the top was the third year's being lead by a team called team CFVY. They didn't do fourth year teams because they were on missions most of the time. The second year's had team BLZE in first. But what we were all focused on was the first years.

**Beacon Academy's First Years Team Rankings**

**14\. GOLD**

…

…

**4\. RWBY**

**3\. BACN**

**2\. JNPR **

**1\. CRDLS **

A chorus of whoops and hell yeahs went around before Cardin waved his hands and calmed everyone down.

"Today we proved ourselves as being worthy as called Beacons best." He said, "But that means we now have a big target on our back, so we're gonna have to work very hard to keep ahead of everyone else and maintain our spots."

We all nodded before climbing back into our respective beds.

When I went to bed that night I felt warm on the inside. So I wasn't a main character, but I wasn't gonna let that stop me from letting them do all the heavy lifting for whatever is to come.

* * *

**POV Weiss **

When Weiss looked over at Ruby's bunk with the light on, she took a deep breath. She realized how wrong she had been treating Ruby ever since talking with Professor Port after Combat Class today.

Remembering that class still stung, not only had she probably cost her and Ruby a chance at winning the sparring match by not listening to her leader but she was furious hearing them gloat about their victory. Her jaw was still sore from where that uncouth ginger haired barbarian struck her.

Swinging open the curtains she found Ruby asleep in front of her notes. She shook her awake.

"Weiss! I-I was studying, and then I fell asleep! I'm sorry..." Ruby stuttered.

Weiss places a hand over Ruby's mouth and puts a finger to her own so Ruby understand.

Weiss lowering her hand, "How do you take your coffee?" She asked.

"I... I don't..." Ruby began.

Weiss getting irritated "Answer the question!" She demanded

"Uhh, cream and five sugars!" She said embarrassingly.

Weiss sighed "Don't move." she ducked under to her own bed and came up with a cup. "Here."

"Um... Thanks, Weiss." Ruby thanked.

"Listen Ruby, I think you have what it takes to be a good leader." Weiss admitted " I know I wasn't that helpful today in our match and that I probably ruined our shot at winning. Let me tell you I'm going to change that, just know that I am going to be the best teammate you'll ever have!" Promised "Good luck studying!" Weiss said "That's wrong, by the way." She pointed out.

"Hey, Ruby?" She asked.

"What Weiss?" She asked

"Let's kick their butts next time." Weiss promised.

"Now you are speaking my language." Said Yang revealing that she was awake.

Weiss went red at realizing Yang and probably Blake had heard her sappy speech.

"You're right we can't let a bunch of jerks like team CRDLS walk around thinking they're the best team in beacon." Ruby cheered.

"Yeah especially now that they've been ranked first in the Team rankings" the normal impassive Blake stated with some actual intensity.

"To beating Team CRDLS!" said Ruby.

"To beating Team CRDLS!" Repeated Yang, Weiss, and Blake.

* * *

**POV Ozpin**

Up in his tower Ozpin took a sip of coffee from his mug. He watched the footage from Miss Goodwitch's class today. Mainly the battle between team RWBY's Weiss Schnee and Ruby Rose against team CRDLS Cardin Winchester and Dove Bronzewing. The spots of Ruby nearly turning the battle in her favor and Weiss ignoring her team leaders orders.

It was important to make sure that they developed into a well oiled team. They had so much potential and he couldn't afford to let it fail because of poor team chemistry. Which is why he had taken the risk of speaking with Ruby Rose personally while Weiss Schnee spoke with Professor Port.

It seemed to be a success as he had watched Weiss for the rest of the day work up the courage to apologize to Ruby for her actions and Ruby begin working more responsibly on being the task she'd been honored and burdened with.

The choice of placing team CRDLS in first place in the rankings was the hope that is would spark a fire in team RWBY . After all they were the team that quite frankly humiliated them on their first day when they were in his professional opinion they better team.

Normally he would have selected team JNPR to be placed first as they were another team that he felt had a well spring of untapped potential and had dominated their opponents. But what team RWBY needed was a goal and what better goal was there then the team that had beaten them and gotten first place in one fell swoop.

This was going to be an important year that was for sure.

* * *

**Authors Notes: that's it for chapter three. I had to grind through the beginning classes in order to get to the main fight sequence. So tell me if the parts in the beginning are a bit choppy. This was my first time writing a fight between two opposing sets of people. And boy is it a lot different from writing a fight against an animal. For starters you have to plan out fights more as a human being are smart and won't just charge in recklessly. Normally Cardin and Dove wouldn't be able to beat Ruby and Weiss but this was when they were still at each other's throats and therefore they couldn't fight as effectively unlike Cardin and Dove who were on the same page and had a plan.**

**As always leave a comment on what you liked and disliked. Feedback is appreciated.**

**There was no hint at Roy's semblance this chapter. Instead I was mainly focusing on the characterization of team CRDLS and trying to keep them as close to canon as possible. Same with team RWBY but they kinda are in opposition with CRDLS so it's a bit hard to write them. I hope the Professor are in line with their show counterparts as well. Let me know if any of them are too OOC. lastly is Ozpin, Ozpin is difficult because there are many different interpretations of him mainly more chaotic good or lawful good.**


	4. Chapter 4 - School of Hard Knocks

School of Hard Knocks

That first day at Beacon was definitely something special for sure. I wish that I could say that things went up from there, that there were many more days like that, but that wasn't the case. I knew that there had been some semblance of luck when my team had beaten team RWBY. Not only had Weiss and Ruby underestimated their opponents, they'd also been not seeing eye to eye for most of their first day together. Those two things had led to Dove and Cardin winning in quite convincing fashion.

The next day was different. Team RWBY seemed liked a completely different team the next day. I could tell because they were actually on time to Professor Ports class. Not only that but Weiss would no longer glare at Ruby when she thought she wasn't looking. I thought there would still be some friction even after they attempted to make up. For them to resolve it this quickly could only be described as the work of a main character.

The day had passed pretty much the same as the one before. Half the students trying and failing to stay awake during Professor Ports class. Students trying and failing to keep up with Professor Ooblecks class. Everyone was okay with Professor Peaches class. It was Professor Goodwitchs class that I knew things weren't right.

I'm pretty sure I quite literally saw fire in Ruby's eyes when she sat down to listen to Miss Goodwitch. It was going to be a variety of matches with 2 v 2s and 1 v 1s taking place.

The first match seemed to be right out of a movie script with it being Weiss and Ruby vs Dove and Sky. I almost questioned if Professor Ozpin had rigged the match like that, but from what I had seen in the 14 episodes I had watched of the show he wasn't shown to do things like that so I doubt that that was the case. He had acted as more of a righteous hand that gave team RWBY mainly Ruby tiny nudges in the right direction. It was probably a coincidence.

Either way the match hadn't been pretty. Dove and Sky had attempted a decent strategy of forcing Weiss into a corner through the fact that both Sky and Dove had ranged weapons. But unlike before Ruby and Weiss covered for each other's blind spots and instead of getting in each other's way they built of each other's attacks.

No amount of fighting dirty and unpredictable could help Dove keep up with a now supported speed glyphed Weiss. Meanwhile Sky was in a horrible mismatch with the smaller and faster Ruby. He couldn't use his reach advantage because of her semblance and his strength wasn't monstrous enough to keep her at bay and cautious like Cardin. He ended up being cut up like chopped liver by the time his aura reached the red. Ruby's was barely a quarter missing.

That meant that Dove who had been trying his damndest to keep the fight between him and Weiss as close as possible was quickly dealt with by the combined might of the two huntresses in training. Weiss ended the match just below half aura.

They were praised and complemented by Miss Goodwitch on their quick turn around. For Dove and Sky she simply said they need more practice against forms of combat that countered theirs.

That wasn't the worst fight of the day though. That honor went to Russel. He had been one of the people that had been selected for the one on one fight. The other had been Yang Xiao Long. The match started out quite even with Yangs powerful punches being swiftly dodged by Russel whose slices from his daggers merely tickled Yangs defenses.

It seemed overall that Yang was winning and had the advantage but it seemed close enough that Russel had a chance to come up with an upset and squeak by. It didn't turn out that way, during an exchange of blows an overextended punch sailed past Russels head and he had taken the opportunity to get a large strike near her face and hopefully put her on the back foot. She tilted her head and nimbly avoided the danger of the slice.

That didn't mean Russel missed completely. No his blade still cut Yang, just not anywhere vital.

The whole class went silent in the auditorium stands when they saw the strands of yellow hair hit the floor.

Russel seemed to realize that he had made some kind of mistake as he immediately backed off.

For a second Yang had just stood there shaking with rage before physically bursting into a ball of yellow flames. This must have been her semblance. Screaming in rage as she charged Russel.

She was a lot faster and stronger in her enraged state overwhelmingly Russel with an incomprehensible flurry of punches. His aura which had been in the high 70s in terms of percent plummeted.

He hit red and his aura was shattered on a vicious right hook to the one spot no man wanted to get punched. A visible wince was seen by all the male students in the class. Even the human robot that was Lie Ren looked away with a wince on his face.

Yang seemed to move in for another punch before seemingly catching herself. Professor Goodwitch went through the common procedure of going over what was done right and what was done wrong.

Russel was still on his knees and holding his vital parts, so me and Cardin had to bring him back the stands. The entire time Cardin had been glaring at Yang. In a reversal of roles from the other day it was Yangs turn to smile smugly. I was beginning to see why Cardin had developed a grudge against team RWBY in the show if something like this had happened similarly in the show.

Understandably by the next change team rankings team JNPR had taken the first place spot on the rankings, but team RWBY had risen to take the second place spot leaving team CRDLS in third place. Needless to say the team wasn't too happy to hear about that.

I also had gotten some spars in. Though I probably hadn't helped our teams situation. I wasn't bad, in fact I did win one match that had come down to the wire with quick thinking on my part to force a ring out. But the other two spars I had been in, I was on the constant defensive from the opening exchange. I had my aura whittled down from there on out till I was in the red and lost.

In other words after the high of the first day the team had not had a good time for the rest of the week.

Which brought us to right now.

"Would Mr. Salt and Ms. Belladonna please report to the locker rooms to get ready for the next match." Announced Miss Goodwitch.

Just my luck it seems. Like if I was gonna face one of the 4 main heroines I would rather fight Weiss because she seemed the most overly reliant on her semblance and least use to fight freethinking opponents. Do get me wrong I would rather not face anyone on team RWBY or the people not named Jaune on team JNPR.

I barely knew anything about her, in the 14 episodes I had watched from earth she was shown to be really fast and agile with a weapon that was a blade, a gun and some kind of rope. She was mainly laid back and very snarky if the way she dealt with Weiss was any indicator. Also unlike the rest of her team I had no idea what her semblance was. This overall meant my little bit of future knowledge was completely useless.

Why hadn't I had at least watched all of their character trailers? Maybe it would have given me some ideas on how to beat Blake. It also probably didn't help that she seemed to have a grudge against my team and I.

I slipped on my dull purple armor and checked _Greed's _parts making sure it was at optimal performance for what was going to be a painful match.

Walking to the ring I saw that Blake was already there and waiting. Unlike me she seemed to forgo armor of any kind to give her more speed and a larger range of motion.

She was studying me with an almost predatory intensity with those golden orbs of hers.

I needed to come up with a plan using what little I knew about her but more importantly what I knew about myself and my own limits. _Greed _would have the advantage at mid distance while her weapon was smaller and more suited to be in close quarters combat. At long range our weapons would be fairly equally her faster rate of fire by her submachine gun would lose its power over distance and _Greed's _rifle form would pack more of a punch but would fire at a slower rate. Also I wasn't near the marksman that Sky and Ruby were.

In physical abilities I wasn't even going to toy with the idea that I was anywhere near her level of speed and agility. But I felt confident that I had her in strength and endurance. It would come down to skill which was in her favor. So at worst she had me 3 to 2 which didn't include planning, dust and semblances.

My best option was to keep the match in the mid range while keeping her in my line of sight and only go for strikes that would hit and have little payoff if she dodged or parried.

I got into my stance spear pointing back alongside the length of my arm.

"Begin!" shouted Professor Goodwitch.

Neither of us made any sudden movements instead we started circling each other. Each looking for the smallest sign of weakness to exploit.

In the stands Cardin shouted, "Go Roy, take her down."

"Yeah you got this."

"You can do it."

"Do it for team CRDLS."

A chorus of cheers came after him by Russel, Sky and Dove.

Cardin was really animated. He probably thought this was an important match to settle the score with team RWBY. After he and Dove won the first match RWBY had won the next two, so this was the one that could split the series 2 to 2 or push it even further in team RWBY's favor.

They weren't the only ones.

"Go partner!" Yang shouted.

"For team RWBY." Weiss said.

"Make us proud Blake." Ruby cheered.

"Go Blake." Yelled Jaune.

"Break his arms." Hysterically urged Nora.

Just like in canon teams JNPR and RWBY had become quick friends. With Ruby and Jaune acting as the bridge between teams. Yang and Nora got along fine same had went for Ren and Blake, and Weiss and Pyrrha. Team JNPR also we're a little bit resentful for not getting first from the get go.

I blinked and that was all it took for the metaphorical fireworks to start. Blake had disappeared when I opened them only too suddenly reappear in front of me swinging her blade down toward me. I barely got _Greed _up in time to block it.

I tried to put myself in a favorable position by sweeping her legs out from underneath her. If I could get her on the ground I'd have a bigger and easier target, with which I could put more power behind my thrusts without having to worry about missing.

That's what I would have done had Blake not just jumped over the wipe and introduced her knee to my face.

The shot of pain made my vision blur for a second before I found myself back pedaling weaving out of the path of bullets that had been unclipped from her gun. I avoided the majority of them but a couple glanced off my armor and my aura.

I leapt forward to put myself in reach with _Greed _and outside the reach of her weapon. I threw a barrage of thrusts intending turn her aura into a pin cushion. She nimbly dodged all of them, I only really succeeded in forcing her back off.

Without warning she threw part of her weapon at me. I quickly batted it to the side. This was my chance I took a step forward until I saw a smirk on her face.

I looked down at _Greed, _the part I had hit aside was wrapped around the shaft and a ribbon was leading all the way back to Blake. I paled.

She pulled forward with her body weight and I was pulled forward to get slashed and struck a multitude of times. I wasn't able to comprehend I how many times I was knocked around before I got the sense to plant my foot into the ground and use the fact _Greed _was still tethered to her weapon to my advantage.

Turning with the full force of my body I swung toward the outside of the ring. She recognised my plan to throw her out of the ring and deftly unhooked her weapon from mine.

I risked a glance towards the big screen and frowned. I had dropped down to about half way while Blake was still in the high nineties. I probably would have been even worse if my armor had not mitigated about 40 percent of the damage I had taken since Blake's weapon wasn't meant for breaking through thickly armored opponents more adept at aiming for their joints and vital areas.

I need to think of something quick that would do some real damage cause this entire fight I had otherwise been playing the part of a piñata.

"Don't give up Roy." Supported Sky.

"Don't let her get in your head." Russel added.

They were right I was letting myself lose confidence. I straighten my posture and spun my _Greed _in my hands. I wasn't going quietly I'd knock some teeth loose on the way down.

I charged forward with a cry and Blake tensed. I thrust forward once and only once. Using the time she jumped back, I transformed _Greed _into its rife mode. Her eyes widened and leapt into the air again.

But I wasn't going to fire at her. This entire match I had been too one dimensional and predictable. I would have to do the opposite to score a good hits. No I merely pretended that I was gonna fire. Instead I leapt with her and holding _Greed _like a baseball bat I swung down and clocked her on the top of her head, _Greed _still in rifle form.

I was confused with how much damage I had done because she landed with an incredibly pained expression and for some reason panic in her yellow eyes. Maybe she was just not expecting me to actually be able to land a solid strike on her.

I pushed that to the back of my brain and instead focused on pressing the sudden advantage I had. Transforming _Greed _back into a spear I thrust forward actually hitting Blake three times.

But on the fourth one something different happened. My spear suddenly went through a dark outline of where Blake was not even a moment ago. The shadow ignited with flames before it exploded.

I was thrown several feet back. What was that? I saw Blake in the corner of my vision and swung my spear to the side to meet her. The same thing as before happened but this time the black shadow turned blue and I suddenly found _Greed _lodged inside an ice sculpture that looked exactly like Blake.

I couldn't think about it any more as I was suddenly sucker punched in the jaw. My head snapped back. When my eyes refocused I saw Blake coming straight at me with her blade gripped in both hands poised to stab right through me.

I panicked and made a move to block with _Greed _but it wouldn't budge, It was still trapped in the ice!

Adrenaline rushed through me, then something happened. I felt a burning sensation in my throat and all of a sudden everything seemed much clearer. Blake was moving fast still but no longer at the point that was untrackable. I ducked out of the way strike and rolled to the side and kicked Blake in the back moving faster than I ever thought I could.

While Blake was on the ground I gripped _Greed _with both hands before yanking it out of the ice. The burning sensation grew stronger in my throat as I turned to Blake who was eyeing me more warily.

If someone was watching closely they would see that a dull shade of green had started to burn in Roy's eyes.

We leapt at each other with renewed vigor. The fire in my throat growing hotter. I felt different like everything was in so much more detail now. I could smell and hear everything going on. But for some reason it still felt incomplete?

Blake was still faster than me even with whatever this boost was and she was using every bit of it to rain down blows on me, but now with this new clearer vision I could parry and deflect most of them, no longer was I getting hammered down, it was more even than it had ever been.

Feeling more confident than I had before I leaned in past a slash and shoulder tackled her forward. I pierced forward with _Greed _and clipped part of her bow. Did her bow twitch?

Something clicked with Blake when I did that as another curious flash of panic crossed her face. All of a sudden Blake seemed to speed up and my enhanced eyes could follow her any more. But I could still smell her somehow.

Turning around to where she appeared next I saw her eyes widen in surprise before furrowing into a determined glare.

I grabbed her arm and swung her over my head planning to use the same move Professor Port had used on the Goliath.

The problem was that Blake was a lot more flexible than a Goliath and when she was above my head she twisted her self around and landed on her feet when I tried to throw her to the ground. What was she! Some kind of cat!

It was my turn to feel myself hit the floor as she used my own momentum to plant me against the floor.

I tried to get up but when I was on my knees a ribbon wrapped around my neck and tightened.

The fire in my throat died instantly and everything went back to normal. I felt my air get cut off and I desperately tried to throw her off but she place her feet against my back and kept sturdy in place.

Contrary to what some creepy people may believe getting choked out by a girl even if it was an admittedly hot girl was not fun. No it was downright terrifying, I could feel my head getting lighter and my attempts at shaking her off growing weaker.

Seeing no other choice, I put my hand out and began tapping the floor.

The constricting didn't stop and I really started to panic. Everything was getting really dark and blurry. I could vaguely hear the sound of my teammates shouting before getting tuned out by the sound of Professor Goodwitch yelling.

Suddenly the weight on my back was thrown off and the ribbon around me loosened before being untangled by an unseen force.

I collapsed on to my hands and knees taking huge gulps of air and continued to heave in and out.

I heard Professor Goodwitch scolding Blake dimly, "That was entirely unacceptable … aura in the red … tapped out … punishment to be discussed with Professor Ozpin."

Everything was coming back to me now. A hand was now on back. I looked up to see Cardin looking down at me with a concerned look. Russel, Sky and Dove we're behind him. They must have jumped down from the stands and ran over.

"Are you ok Mr. Salt." Professor Goodwitch came over from Blake her normally stoic face betraying hints of concern.

I nodded slowly. "I'm fine." I rasped, my throat burnt inside and out.

"That's good to hear, however I think that will be all for you today." She decided.

"That will be all for today's class," she announced.

Me and my team walked back to the audience and the door, Cardins glare didn't leave team RWBY the entire time. I looked at the scoreboard one last time. My aura read 7 percent while Blake's ended at 53 percent.

When we got outside I said "sorry about letting you guys down."

Russel scoffed, "please it's not your fault you went up against that psycho."

Sky added on, "You really turned it around in the second part of that fight too."

Cardin came in at the end, "you've improved a lot since the initiation you could barely beat a Beowulf back then your leagues ahead of that now."

Hearing them say that was nice but it didn't erase the feeling completely.

"Why don't we hit the gym for a bit. We still have a good five hours left in the day." Cardin suggested.

"That sounds like a plan." Said Russel.

* * *

**POV Blake**

That had been to close way to close.

Twice in her fight with Roy had she nearly been exposed.

At first the fight had been a breeze simply keep out of his range and hit him from a blind spot.

But then he'd pulled a fast on her and instead of shooting her like any normal person would have expected he'd clubbed her in the head with his gun.

That had hurt a lot especially since he'd gotten her right on top of one of her very sensitive ears. For a second she had thought the bow had come off. If that had happened her time at Beacon would of been done and she'd of left in handcuffs.

Because of that she had been forced to reveal her semblance to the class. Which was something she did not want to do. After she had used it though Roy's fighting style suddenly changed.

He seemed to speed up and become more focused. They were on even ground and he nearly sliced off her bow.

At that moment she knew she needed to end it then and there, it was too dangerous to let the match go on any longer otherwise she risked blowing her cover.

She quickly got behind him and even though he kept up with her she reversed the grip he had placed on her and threw him to his knees when he attempted to suplex her. She had grabbed _Gamble Shroud_ and wrapped its ribbon around his neck.

She had been so focused on preventing him from finding out her secret she didn't realize how close she came to knocking him unconscious or the fact he was tapping out until literally being thrown off by Professor Goodwitch.

She'd been scolded by her and would surely receive a detention or two but in the back of her head whispered to her that it had been worth it, Roy would be to focused on the end of the fight to think of anything suspicious during the match. She hated how she agreed with the voice.

Even if she had run away from the White Fang and their new ideals she still couldn't escape her need to run and hide. She looked around the room at her teammates all diligently studying for once. She couldn't tell them they wouldn't understand.

Especially Weiss, a Schnee would never accept a faunus on their team, definitely not one with a history connected to the White Fang like hers.

If team CRDLS had found out it would have be even worse. She'd seen the day of the initiation how they treated faunus.

Yang saw her staring. "Something the matter." She asked

Blake looked a way, "it's nothing."

Yang looked skeptical, "are you sure, I'm not doing anything wrong am I? I rather not have you strangle me in my sleep if I am." She joked.

Blake just looked down at her feet at that comment.

Yang realized that she had made a mistake, "hey sorry that probably wasn't a good joke, but if something is bothering you just tell me, we're partners after all and partners look after one another."

Blake wanted to believe her. She really did.

* * *

**POV Roy**

We reached the gym. It was fairly large. There were a bunch of treadmills on the right side of the room. In the middle was an automated obstacle course and a couple small red rings. To the side of those was a bunch of training dummies. In the very back was a selection of weight machines. To the left was a shooting range.

Russel made his way over to the obstacle course and pressed the on button.

Sky grabbed his weapon and walked over to the shooting range.

I went to walk forward but a hand on my shoulder stopped me. I looked over and Cardin and Dove were looking at me.

"What?" I asked.

"You were disappointed today by your lack of skill or effect earlier in the match today." Dove said bluntly.

"You were able to hold your own through surprises and quick thinking, but as you can see that will only get you so far. As Miss Goodwitch said skills is what will win 100 percent of the time." Said Cardin.

"What are you saying?" I said slowly.

"What I'm saying is," Cardin said equally as slow, "TRAINING BEGINS NOW."

I received a mace to the chest and was sent flying into one of the red rings. I got up to avoid a sword slice from where I laying.

"What are you guys doing?" I yelled at them.

Walking towards me was Cardin and Dove brandishing their weapons.

"Well you keep sulking around about being to weak and shit, but I'd figure if we tried and asked to help you you'd probably say some crap about having to do it on your own or something like that." Said Cardin.

"No I would n…" I began before pausing. Okay I might have said that. It was my dream after all or young me's dream, at this point it was one in the same. If I couldn't do this myself then what good was I.

"_If I couldn't do this myself then what good was I" _those words tickled something in the back of my memory. All of a sudden the image of a rooftop came into my head along with two people on top it having the exact same conversation I was right now.

"_Oh I'm doing the same thing as Jaune." _I thought. I remembered those episodes pretty well. I had always thought Jaune was stupid for ingnoring Pyrrha offer for help yet here I was no better than him. The irony was not lost on me that it was Cardin making the same offer as well.

"Maybe you're right ." I admitted.

"Good." Said Dove, "about time you realized you had team for a reason."

"And what if I hadn't realized it, huh?" I retorted.

Cardin hefted is mace over his shoulder "your compliance was a non factor." He said with a straight face, "didn't I tell you we'd beat you daily till you caught up."

A shot whizzed by my ear and my legs were kicked out from underneath me.

I looked up to see Sky and Russel looking down at me.

"We have to work to do if we want to keep up with prodigys like team RWBY and NPR. And you know what they say, ``Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard, so we're simply going to have to out work everyone else in order to be the best." Cardin instructed.

"Roy you have trouble with fast and nimble opponents so you're sparing with Russel first, Sky and Dove you guys are taking me on."

I looked at Russel giving me a smug grin. "I hate you guys sometimes." I tried to say it with as much venom as possible but the effect was ruined by the fact I was grinning myself.

I was laying down on the ground. Beside me was the rest of team CRDLS all sitting down or on their backs.

Three hours. Three hours of constant training. We'd started of with normal spars where on pair would do a 1 on 1 while the other three would t against Cardin.

It was an effective form of training to help one adapt to different types of enemies. Russel was the speedy close quarters assassin that forced you to keep on your toes. Sky was the ranged fighter who made you realize how long a battle can be drawn out. Dove was the skilled melee fighter that made you have to parry and deflect in order to break rhythm or perform combos. In my opinion he also fought dirty. Lastly Cardin was the big slow opponent that put you on the ropes from the get go making you pick and choose your strikes as one slip up or shot taken would spell your doom.

After a bunch of those matches we ended up doing weights and the obstacle course for basic physical fitness.

We ended it with a race around the entirety of beacon ending at the cliffs overlooking emerald academy. Russel came first, then Sky, then me and Dove in a tie and last was Cardin.

All my energy for being sad or salty about my loss was gone. I just didn't have it in me to be unhappy right now.

I looked up at the sky and for some reason I just had the urge to laugh.

So I did, I started laughing slowly at first until it quickened before becoming full blown hysterical laughter.

Beside me I heard Russel join in.

Then Sky as well.

Cardin joined in not too long after.

I heard chuckling and looked over to see Dove before he suddenly burst into laughter too.

We all sat there laughing for a while before heading back to beacon.

* * *

**POV Ozpin **

Ozpin once again was sitting at his desk. This time looking at a map of Vale. In a big red x was the spot where Amber had been attacked. Fortunately Qrow had gotten there in time to stop the assailants from finishing the job.

But the state she had returned in was less than optimal. Unresponsive in her comatose state and badly scarred. The attackers had done something to her that was for sure. Part of her maiden powers were missing Ozpin could tell. It was worrying.

This had the marks of the Queen all over it. Ozpin should have known that she'd been quiet for too long. She was planning something that much was for sure. The question what was she playing at.

Looking over to the chess board on one of the book shelves Ozpin sighed. She obviously had some new pawns as well. New pawns that he knew nothing about. That fact is what made them so dangerous. From what Qrow had told him the only features that he could make out was the fact that there were two females and one male. One of the females had green hair and the other had a red dress. Those details were practically useless in a world as diverse as Remnant. No the only thing of value was that the boy had prosthetic legs of some sort.

Those things could easily be hidden as well. Ozpin looked at the scroll with Qrows private number on it. Ozpin contemplated for a second before picking it up and pressing the dial button.

The scroll rang for a second before the click of it being answered was heard.

"Is there a situation Oz?" A husky voice answered.

"Not at the moment." Said Ozpin, "however that may not be the case for long."

"You think that the Queen has her sights on Vale?" Qrow guessed.

"That is what I am suspecting, how long till you can make it back to Beacon? Ozpin asked.

"Once I finish up here I'll be able to make around the time of the Vytal festival." Qrow answered. "How are my nieces doing."

"They had a rough first day but they seemed to have righted the ship now and are on track to be one of the top teams in beacon not just first years." Ozpin gave him his thoughts on the matter.

"And the rest of the kids." Qrow questioned. "Are they up to snuff or has there been another drop in quality?"

"There is another team that has the makings of exceptional huntsman the rest are around par for the course." Ozpin sighed.

"Well that's a good sign, who knows maybe down the road these teams can make a difference." Said Qrow optimistically.

"I sure do hope you're right Qrow, Good luck on your mission." Said Ozpin before hanging up.

Ozpin looked back to the map of Vale. Even if things had gone wrong with Amber Ozpin still held hope that he could turn the situation around. There was a silver lining though. While it was true that there had been a drop in the quality of huntsman candidates since the days of team STRQ team RWBY looked to have the potential to surpass them. Then team JNPR also had the possibility of attaining such meteoric heights. The rest of the first year teams also were at least average, the only one that had a chance of being more that that was team CRDLS so Ozpin could at least depend on this year's other teams to be serviceable at the least.

If Ambers condition continued to deteriorate then Ozpin may have to take drastic measures.

The first shots had been fired, now the question was how to proceed. He looked at the map of Remnant. The sound of the numerous clock parts echoed in the tower.

"What is your plan Salem?"

* * *

**Authors Notes: That's it for chapter 4. This was the first true one on one fight I've written and boy did it take a lot longer than I expected. I ended up adding in the part about his semblance during the end part of the fight. So tell me if it feels choppy around those parts. So as a recap for the hints about what his semblance is they are: the MOBA he was playing before coming to Remnant, the symbol on his armor and his armor's color, the name of his weapon and the teaser semblance seen in the fight with Blake.**

**Things of note about the plot. Roy's semblance was not complete as I tried to mention. Secondly I felt this chapter had to show the gap between a normal huntsman in training and prodigies like Ruby and Yang. So no Roy isn't weak right now he's around the middle of the pack it's just that Blake is a main character for a reason. Also Roy doesn't know that Blake is a faunus he didn't watch the character trailers and only up to episode 14 the episode before Blake's arc started and revealed her as a faunus to the audience.**

**The scenes with Blake and Ozpin are to both highlight how other people view team CRDLS and added character depth. In Blake's case I felt there wasn't enough fear of being found out by her fellow students in the show. She should be terrified considering the things she's connected to. Ozpin's is the weight of the decisions he makes and how he deals with the responsibility by examining every angle of something before acting.**


	5. Chapter 5 - To Be So Lonely

To Be So Lonely

The next couple of weeks passed without much fanfare. Team CRDLS and I continued with our new training regime. A new 1 mile run in the morning followed by core. Then breakfast before we'd end up going to class. Once the classes for the day would end then we'd head to the gym to do weight and strength training as well as partnered and team sparring.

Thing was it was working as well. Sure the results of the actual physical training had not been ground breaking, I was still faster and stronger than before and skilled enough to hold my own against the majority of our class now.

No, the real results was the teamwork and cohesion. I hadn't been that good at battling or fighting with teammates. I'd never had friends in the orphanage or a partner during my self training to get into beacon. So when it came to teamwork I was a novice.

My skills were just, don't get in their way and do hit them by accident. But Cardins mandatory partner switches during spars helped me to build a repertoire with each of my teammates. I knew how to work with them by side and actually build off one another to keep control of an engagement or cover one of my teammates blind spots. I still think we could use some work working together as a full five man team. But hey wasn't that what practice is for and progress washing being made on it.

Either way back to my improvement. I was more coordinated now when it came to team play as well as more experienced with going against skilled combatants. I still was trying to figure out the burning sensation in my throat which i am pretty sure had something to do with my semblance or was my semblance. But I'd yet to find away to make it happen again.

All in all I'd say I risen in rank over the past couple of weeks. There were about 40 ish first year students in beacon, those from the initiation, those that transferred in from another academy and special circumstances students. Before my extra training had begun or around the time I was being choked out I would have generously put myself in the top 35 at worst I was 38. Post new training regime I would say at worst I was in the top 25. It was a big improvement over the relatively short amount of time. However some people had yet to catch their stride forget being to improve.

Case in point rank 40 in the class right now.

"Ahhh" Jaune screamed as we was sent flying backward by Cardins blow.

In the show it was just implied Jaune was a bad fighter with him only shown losing to Cardin. Watching it was a different story. I'm pretty sure watching it hurt me more than anything Jaune had done to Cardin in the ring yet.

It had been weeks and Jaune still was being completely reckless in the spars. He hardly referred to his scroll and barely came up with well thought plans too.

This match was perfect example of Juanes deficiencies. The match had begun with Jaune charging in wildly at Cardin swing his sword.

Cardin simply agily twirled and ducked out of the way of the clumsy swings. Cardin kept a look of concern on him to make Jaune think he had him on the ropes. Then finally after overextending himself Cardin merely took his mace and connected it with Jaunes back sending his tumblining to the ground and out of the way.

The match would have ended there if it had most other people. But two things kept Cardin pounding Jaunes head in and finishing the match. The first was aura. If there was one thing keeping Jaune in these matches it was that he had his above average aura that had to be whittled down slowly in order to get Jaune low enough to finish him off with a high power combo.

For comparison Cardin had the most aura on my team in general and I thought his was pretty large at 1360. Jaune though had more with a finally total going up to 1600. That was a full 400 more aura than I had and I knew thanks to Professor Goodwitch that I too had an above average amount of aura for my age. Jaune nearly had double the amount that Ruby had.

The second reason that Jaune wasn't out of this match though was because Cardin was toying with Jaune. I may have mentioned this before but Cardin held grudges. Team CRDLS relationships with teams JNPR and RWBY hadn't really improved over the past couple weeks. Cardin was the most bitter of the team.

Probably because of the fact he was leader and had some twisted sense responsibility that told him he was letting his team down.

Since Cardin wasn't able to take down the main perpetrators Yang and the rest of Team RWBY. He had decided that since they were good friends with team JNPR that he'd get back at them through them. And lo and behold Jaune was so easy Cardin didn't even need to put in the effort to get to him or target someone else.

Cardin side stepped another charging swing by Jaune and layed a heavy swing in Jaunes shield. It went flying out of the ring leaving Jaune with his primary means of defense gone.

He looked back at Cardin clearly exhausted who just smirked. Jaune charged forward with his sword again.

This time however instead of dodging the strike Cardin caught the blow with the hilt of his mace. He kept it it a stalemate. I knew Cardin was keeping it in stalemate, he was the physically strongest person I knew the only people around his level or above it were probably Yang and Nora.

Cardin could have easily ended this match in a multitude of ways. The simplest being to just let Jaune fall out of the ring by backing up and to the side, he was leaning forward with all of his weight after all.

But no that is not what happened. Using his superior strength Cardin forced Jaune downward and leaned in.

Just loud enough for the rest of the class to hear Cardin said, "This is the part where you _lose_."

Straining to look up Jaune fought back, "Over my dead b-!"

He wasn't given a chance to finish his moment of defiance because Cardin slammed his knee right into Jaune crotch at the moment.

That shot brought Jaune down to the red in aura. As he crumpled to the floor. Cardin held his mace above his head for a finishing blow but was cut off by Miss Goodwitch.

I knew Cardin well enough to know that he wouldn't go through with it. It was a power play to get into his opponents head, to say "I could finish you off whenever I want." I guessed it was retribution for Russel if the way Cardin smirked toward Yang had anything to do with it.

"Cardin, that's enough!" Cardin relented and walked away as she came onto the stage, tapping her tablet "Students, as you can see, Mr. Arc's Aura has now dropped into the red. In a tournament-styled duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle, and that the official may call the match." As Jaune laid still on the floor in defeat I saw Pyrrha Nikos looking at him with a sad look on her face, Glynda turned her head to look at Jaune as he pulled out a smaller tablet with his low, blinking stats along the rest of his team "Mr. Arc, it's been weeks now. Please try to refer to your Scroll during combat. Gauging your Aura will help you decide when it's appropriate to attack, or when it is better to move to a more... defensive strategy. We wouldn't want you to be gobbled up by a Beowolf, now, would we?"

"Speak for yourself." Cardin mumbled. He walked back over to the stands and sat down with the rest of us.

He glanced over to Pyrrha helping Jaune if the floor. "I guess anyone can make it into Beacon if they have a world champion holding their hand along every step of the way."

I looked over at Pyrrhas attempts to not look like she was enjoying touching Jaune. "Yeah I guess."

* * *

**Then Next Day At Lunch**

We'd just finished another boring lecture with Professor Port and were happily chowing down on some of the schools meals.

I looked over to Cardin who was inhaling a turkey leg.

"So what's up with you and Arc." I asked.

Everyone on the team stopped mid bite to look at us.

"Why do you care?" Cardin answered.

"I really don't but you're the leader and I was curious," I said. I was partly lying I kinda cared about the situation. I didn't care about what Cardin was doing with Jaune because I knew that Jaune needed to be pushed in order to develop as a person and standing up to Cardin was an important step in the right direction to becoming a good leader. The things that happened so far were mainly the same as canon. If I interfered to much I might make irreaparable damage to team JNPR or the show. So I didnt see anything wrong with letting things playing out like they did in the show for now. I could worry about changing the show when my future knowledge ran out.

Cardin hit books out of Jaunes arms. Cardin getting his shield stuck in the doorway. The only one I had altered was the locker scene. I let Cardin push Jaune into the locker but placed my hand on his soldier before he launched it. My reasoning I told him was that he could get in some serious trouble for that one. So Cardin just set a 20 minute timer before the locker would unlock and Jaune could get out. I felt that since it was the action of bullying that spured Jaune to change not the methofs of bullying then it was okay to make a change like that from canon with out the risk of screwing it up.

Cardin looked at me before answering. "He's weak and lets everything get to him and happen to him. He's constantly carried by his team, especially his partner. He should not be in first place for the team rankings. I don't know how he got into beacon but he shouldn't be here. We all worked really hard to make it where we are and the fact he's here with how good he is is insulting."

I clenched my fist and nodded at that one. I knew how hard I had worked to get into Beacon. Six years of working to just get a shot at taking the exam. I knew that he faked his transcripts and now that I was in beacon it made me angrier than when I had to watch the episode. It was another smaller reason I hadn't helped him "_you sleep in the bed that you make and he had made his."_

"If he's not gonna stand up for himself why should I stop." Cardin continued, "besides I'm not just a jerk to him only. Watch this."

He got up and we followed after him. He sat down and shoved aside a bunny faunus and motioned for use to sit down. Which we did.

"Um excuse me I .. I was-"

"As I was saying." Cardin interrupted the girl. "Some people are just doormats."

He reached over and grabbed one of the girls bunny ears.

She gasped and immediately froze. So did I.

"See I told you they were really." Cardin laughed.

"Please stop it hurts." The Bunny faunus whimpered.

Cardin let go and she ran out of the lunch room.

"Man what a freak why wouldn't she stand up for herself." Russel gawked.

"This is an academy for future warriors not soft hearted pansies." Cardin said, "if they can't stand up for themselves what's gonna happen when they get out into the field and have to deal with grimm and rouge huntsman and bandits?"

I didn't like what he had did but again my fear of changing the canon had gotten the best of me and I let it happen. That didn't sooth the feeling of guilt in my gut though.

I didn't agree with it all but it's not like Cardin was entirely wrong, just mostly. This was one of the most prominent schools in the world meant to train the next generation of warriors that are supposed to protect the populace from a soulless army. There was no room for weaklings in this place. People like Jaune and that girl would become easy pickings in the world in his mind. It's one of the reasons that I bet that Ozpin did nothing about antics like this since students needed to stand up for themselves. I knew that if some had tried on me what Cardin tried on Jaune and the bunny girl I would have fought back.

Maybe I wouldn't have won and gotten beaten up but I definitely wouldn't have stood there and let it happen to me. I'd at least show them some resistance, let them know I wasn't easy pickings.

"Faunus are almost too easy, since there all so insecure about their extra parts and shit they curl up into a ball most of them." Cardin explained. "Maybe if they showed so backbone and weren't so offended by everything said about them they'd make some progress."

"Sounds to me like you just don't like faunus." Said Dove.

"Meh all they do is complain about not having enough, they got their equal rights and their own continent they should be happy with what they have like the rest of us." Cardin complained. "Why should I care about their problems when I've got my own to worry about."

I bit my tongue. Being a huntsman meant protecting everyone. But I didn't want to start a fight I could avoid.

Cardin looked over at Jaune who had a downcast look and smirked.

* * *

**The Next Day Professor Oobleck's Class**

Professor Oobleck sped around the room Before speaking. "Yes! Yes, prior to the Faunus Rights Revolution-more popularly known as the Faunus War" He said this while speeding over up to his board" -humankind was quite, quite adamant about centralizing Faunus population in Menagerie." He proceeded to point to a map of said-area with his stick, then zoomed off to the side for a sip of his coffee before appearing in front of his desk. "Now! While this must feel like ancient history to many of you, it is imperative to remember that these are relatively recent events! Why, the repercussions of the uprising can still be seen to this day!" He once again zoomed around the classroom more, sipping his coffee briefly before continuing to zoom and speak "Now! Have any among you been subjugated or discriminated because of your Faunus heritage?"

Some of the students in the class raised their hands. The bunny girl from lunch the day before looked around, after a moment, she did the same.

"Dreadful, simply dreadful! Remember, students, it is precisely this kind of ignorance that breeds violence!" He took another sip of his coffee, "I mean, I mean, I mean just look at what happened to White Fang! Now, which one of you young scholars can tell me what many theorize to be the turning point in the third year of the War?" Said Doctor Oobleck.

Weiss raised her hand as usual

"Yes Miss Schnee." Professor Oobleck called on her.

"The battle at Fort Castle!" Weiss started.

"Precisely! Professor Oobleck commended, "And, who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces?"

At this moment while Professor Oobleck wasn't looking Cardin flicked a paper football at a sleeping Jaune's head, which caused him to wake up.

"Hey!" Jauney complained.

Professor Oobleck zoomed over to Jaune in an instant. "Mr. Arc! Finally contributing to class! This is excellent! Excellent! What is the answer?"

"Uhhhh... The answer... The advantage... that the Faunus..." he started.

I saw Jaune look behind Professor Oobleck just like in canon over to Pyrrha who was coughing and mouthing something to Jaune.

"...had over that guy's stuff..." he continued

Pyrrha cupped her hands over her eyes trying to tell him that the answer was night vision.

"Uhh... Binoculars!" He finished.

The class laughed at Jaune and I could practically hear Professor Oobleck slapping his hand against his head inside of his mind.

Pyrrha did the same thing but in the physical world instead. Cardin pounded his fist on his desk while chortling.

Professor Oobleck sighed, "Very funny, Mr. Arc! Cardin! Perhaps you would care to share your thoughts on the subject!"

"Well, I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier." Cardin joked.

Professor Oobleck shook his head.

"You're not the most open-minded of individuals, are you, Cardin?" Pyrrha said in a condescending tone.

"What? You got a problem?" Cardin challenged.

"No, I have the answer! It's night vision. Many Faunus are known to have nearly-perfect sight in the dark." Pyrrha answered.

"General Lagune was inexperienced, and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched, and the general was captured." She turned "Perhaps if he'd paid attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure." Blake piggy backed on Pyrrha.

Just when Professor Oobleck was about to start again I spoke up. "Perhaps, but don't you think you're forgetting something really important."

It was Blake's turn to glare at me and I could have sworn that her bow twitched.

"Go on Mr. Salt." Doctor Oobleck said.

"While it was true that General Lagune was inexperienced he was by no means stupid. The true crux of the battle and his defeat happened when his scouts were paid off by pro faunus militants. These scouts fed General Lagune the information that the army he was about to attack was completely exhausted and limited by a previous battle. Had this been the case his attack wouldn't have mattered whether it was in the night or in the day because most of the enemy army would have been asleep and unprepared no matter how good their night vision was. But due to the false information given to him he and his army ended up walking right into a trap." I explained confidently.

"That is correct Mr. Salt." Proffesor Oobleck said. "While the decision to attack during the night may not have been the correct decision in hindsight the true problem was how well General Lagune trusted his men, which was too much."

I shot a smug look at Blake who looked to be fuming. I had researched the battle well in advance of this lesson. Was this painting myself in a good light right now? Probably not. Did I care about that? No. As far as I was concerned this was one of the few spots in the show that I knew I could get even with Blake. So yes, I was still angry about the whole being choked out with a ribbon thing even if it had been a couple weeks. Besides it also helped to defend my partner. I could afford to be petty.

Also I knew how Blake acted in this scene wasn't important to canon, only Cardin and Pyrrha so for once I wasn't terrified of changing canon. You might be wondering where all this worry is coming from? Well even though I hadn't watched all of the show I knew the beginning espiodes like any tv series's had a big impact on team dynamics later on so things needed to progress the same way becuase I knew thats what Monty thought was best for each characters development.

"Moving onto the next segment …" Professor Oobleck said. "Also Mr. Winchester and Mr. Arc please see me after class for additional readings."

"Class dismissed." Professor Oobleck states and many of the students began to file their way out of the room. Cardin and Jaune both walked up to Doctor Oobleck desk.

When the rest of the team and I walked out the door we stopped. "Go on ahead I'll wait for Cardin." I said.

They left and I could hear Professor Ooblecks rant. "You two have been struggling in my class since day one! Now, I don't know if it's a lack of interest, or just your stubborn nature, but whatever it is.. It stops now! You've worked hard to gain entrance to this school, and we only accept the best of the best, so I expect you to act like it. History is important, gentlemen! If you can't learn from it... you're destined to repeat it. Pages fifty-one to ninety-one! I want an essay on my desk by next class! Now! Run along."

Jaune walked out of the class first and was greeted by Pyrrha. Before he got a chance to speak he was pushed out of the way by Cardin who walked up to me.

"Maybe I will break his legs." I heard Pyrrha mumble as we walked away.

"So what was the punishment." I asked. I already knew of course since I'd seen the episode but I needed a conversation starter.

"Ugh, more readings and an essay." Cardin groaned, "I hate writing man."

"Well you better pump up that grade of yours, after all they do play a role in the team rankings." I joked.

"Well it's not like it's gonna make a difference anyway." Cardin said bitterly.

"Hey now that's not the attitude to have what happened to my big strong leader?" I said the last part like I was talking to a little kid.

The response I got was a strong punch to the shoulder. "Yeah yeah I'll figure something out don't you worry about it."

We walked back to the room and Dove, Sky and Russel were laying on their beds doing homework.

"Look who showed up our brave and fearless leader." Russel drawled.

"Shut up Russel." Cardin retorted. "I've got to find a way to write an essay on another 40 pages of Professor Ooblecks assignment."

"Ouch maybe you should have paid more attention in class then." Sky said.

All of sudden a door slamming could be heard above us.

"What was that." Dove questioned.

"SHHHHH!" Cardin who was by the window silenced him and placed a finger to his lips and pointed up to the ceiling "roof" he mouthed.

A couple voices were heard above.

"Pyrrha, I know I'm going through a hard time right now, but I'm not that depressed." It was Jaune. "I can always be a farmer or something..."

"N-n-no!" Pyrrha voiced said quickly "That's not why I brought you up here!" She said "Jaune, I know you're having a difficult time in class and that you're still not the strongest of fighters, so... I want to help you!"

"Wh-what?" Jaune gawked.

"We can train up here after class where no one can bother us!" Pyrrha explained

"You think I need help?" Jaune said in an accusing tone.

"N-no! No, that's not what I meant." Pyrrha tried to explain.

"But you just said it." Jaune said bluntly.

"Jaune, everybody needs a little push from time to time. It doesn't make you any different from the rest of us. You made it to Beacon! That speaks volumes of what you're capable of!" Pyrrha said trying to cheer him up.

I grimace already knowing what was about to come.

"You're wrong. I-I don't belong here." Jaune said solemnly.

"That's a terrible thing to say! Of course you do!" Pyrrha said.

"No, I don't!" Jaune sighed, "I wasn't really accepted into Beacon..."

"Wh-what do you mean?" Pyrrha said sounding confused and horrified.

"I mean I didn't go to combat school, I didn't pass any tests. I didn't earn my spot at this Academy!" Jaune said his voice getting higher and higher as he confessed, "I lied! I got my hands on some fake transcripts, and I lied!"

"What? But... why?" Pyrrha said quietly.

"'Cause this is always what I've wanted to be!" there was pause Bedford jaune could be heard continuing "My father, my grandfather, and his father before him were all warriors! They were all heroes! I wanted to be one, too. I was just never good enough." He explained

Pyrrha was heard again, "Then let me help you!"

"I don't want help! I don't want to be the damsel in distress! I want to be the hero!" I didn't see his face but I knew it was the same one I had one a couple of weeks ago.

"Jaune, I-" Pyrrha began only to be cut off.

"I'm tired of being the lovable idiot, stuck in the tree while his friends fight for their lives! Don't you understand? If I can't do this on my own... then what good am I?" Jaune said exasperated.

There was a longer pause this time as we all looked around each other.

Jaune: "Just... leave me alone. Okay?"

"If that's what you think is best..." Pyrrha said remorsefully.

Then the conversation ended and the door to the roof could be heard closing.

I looked around at my teammates. Russel and Sky's mouths were open in shock and I could actually see Doves eyes for once. Cardin had a blank face on.

All of a sudden Cardin grabbed the top of the window ledge and but before hoisting himself up he said "I'm going up there."

Russel was the first to speak. "Can you believe it?" He sounded astonished.

"Jaune snook his way I to beacon!" Said Sky seemingly needing to say it aloud in order to understand that it was true and not just so kind of dream.

"I can't believe it." I said with mock surprise. I already knew but it would be suspicious if I didn't act surprised.

"That explains a lot." It was Dove who said that.

"What do you mean?" Sky questioned.

"Well it's a reason for his horrendous combat ability and zero knowledge on weapons or huntsman history." Relayed Dove, "I just don't get how he was able to make through Beacons staff surely they would have caught something like a fake transcript being submitted."

I wondered that to but didn't say it aloud.

"Now what?" Asked Russel.

At that moment Cardin swung back in from the window with a grin on his mug.

"What happened up there?" Sky asked.

"Nothing much just me and Jauney boy having a nice little chat that's all." Cardin said.

"So are we gonna rat him out to Professor Goodwitch?" Said Russel, "He did break the rules after all."

"Of course not." Said Cardin "we've been blessed with a wonderful opportunity."

"What do you mean?" Dove questioned.

"Let's just say I won't have to worry about Professor Ooblecks readings anymore." Cardin said vaguely.

"You're gonna have Arc do your homework and anything else you want." I finished.

"Yup, and if he doesn't he'll be on the first bullhead out of Beacon." Said Cardin.

"But won't we get in trouble if he tells his team or a teacher." Nervously said Sky.

"He won't or he'll have to tell them he snuck in and be kicked out anyway, you heard him he wants to stay in beacon and become a hero, he won't tell anyone." Assured Cardin.

Dove was about to say something but Russel cut him off, "Let him squirm, he wanted to get into beacon this bad then he should accept the consequences of his actions then. He'll have to work in order to make up for all the things he's done."

This was just like in canon so I knew what was gonna happen. Maybe I should have said something but I didn't. I'm too afraid to risk changing something. I only had like 3 ish more episodes before my limited knowledge of the future was up. I would be flying blind from then on out. So right now I just need to make sure that I use it to my advantage. Then wait till the opportune moment to change something, I already had a thing to change in mind.

Cardin sent a message to Jaune to make sure he knew his place and what he had to do.

I looked at the time on my scroll it was 8:00 I still had 2 hours before all of the students had to be back in their dorms.

"I'm gonna head down to the gym to get a work out in." I said, "I finished all my homework anyway."

"Look who's showing some initiative with their training, it looks like something finally got through that thick skull of yours." Cardin.

"Shut up." I told him and closed the door.

I walked down to the entrance of the dorms and walked out into the darkening sky. I took a deep breath and began my way to the gym. On the path there I passed the statute of the Huntsman, Huntress and the Beowulf on the ground. I paused and looked at it. The Huntsman looked so imposing, somehow emitting an aura of calm even with the fearsome visage of the Beowulf growling up toward him. This was what I was gonna be when I was done here a true hero.

When I made to the gym I opened the two doors to see that I wasn't the only there. Team RWBY and team JNPR had taken to training at night. Probably because they weren't morning people and to avoid team CRDLS. Other groups of students were scattered around as well.

I made my way over to the treadmill and started a warm up jog. I figured the best way to improve would be by starting to increase my endurance. After all if I could practice longer than I would be able to get better faster then.

Putting the treadmill on it fastest setting I started to increase the pace till I was going at my maximum tempo pace. The pace that people can hold without sprinting and depleting there stamina at a meteoric rate.

I kept at it for 20 minutes till I was drenched in sweat. Grabbing a towel I wiped my face and proceeded to the weight racks. With aura one strength was naturally well above the limits of a normal human so lifting more than one's body weight was a normal occurrence. Putting on the bar two hundred pounds I started going to in from my chest. It may seem like a lot but really it wasn't I had seen Cardin and his brute strength training last lift 400 pounds as a warmup.

*Clang*

I re racked the bar and looked over to the side. It was Pyrrha and Ruby sparring in the ring.

Well more like it was Pyrrha wailing on Ruby. Pyrrha looked pretty pissed and I'd hate to be Ruby right now.

* * *

**POV Pyrrha **

Ruby hit the floor and gasped. She laid there for a second before bringing herself back up to her knees.

"Do think we can take a break now Pyrrha my back hurts." She complained. "Besides wasn't there something you wanted to talk to me about?"

Pyrrha sighed, "Yeah you're right, thanks for coming down here with me I really need to blow off some steam. And yes I did need to talk to you about something."

"Well what is it?" Chirped Ruby.

"It's about Jaune." Pyrrha admitted.

"What about Jaune?" Ruby asked.

"Well I'm just worried about him, he hasn't been doing well in school and been growing distance as of late." Said Pyrrha.

"Do you have any idea why he may not want to spend time with you guys." Ruby queried.

Flashbacks to their conversation on the roof appeared in Pyrrha head and she shook her head "no I can't think of any reason why, but the reason I came to you is because you're Jaunes first friend at beacon and he'll listen to you."

Ruby stared at Pyrrha for a second, "Pyrrha I am gonna be blunt with you, me and Jaune aren't as close as you think you are."

For some reason a knot in Pyrrha's stomach undid itself when Ruby said that.

"But since you asked I'll talk to him when I get the chance, however I think you're underestimating your importance to him." Continued Ruby, "you're his partner and friend I'm sure whatever going on with him will run its course and he'll come back and make up to you."

"Thanks Ruby you're such a good friend, I wish I was as smart as you sometimes." Pyrrha said.

Ruby put her nose up to her thumb "I know I'm perfect in everyway." She giggled.

* * *

**POV Jaune**

Jaune stared at the pen and paper in front of him. How had he gotten himself into this mess? Before coming to Beacon the plan had seemed so simply. Step 1 fake his transcripts and get into Beacon, step 2 become a hero that everyone loved and adored and become insanely popular with the ladies. Just where had it all gone wrong he wondered?

Now here he was stuck under Cardins thumb because of him being a gigantic moron. He knew that not having not having any combat training would set him behind in class he just hadn't realized how far behind he had been. Maybe he should have taken Pyrrha up on her offer? Just thinking about that conversation made Jaune stomach twist, he was really harsh to her when she was just trying to help him. She didn't need to do that even if she was his partner. But he couldn't go back to her otherwise he would have to admit he was wrong and he didn't want to see her look at him in shame. He owed it to his team to this on his own so they could see that they didn't need look at him like dead weight.

No Jaune needed to do this on his own or he couldn't call himself a hero. He wouldn't be the loveable idiot stuck in the tree anymore. As soon as he did this his own way he go right up to Pyrrha and apologize. Besides if Roy could do it so could he.

Roy had been near the bottom of the class in terms of combat and he'd managed to improve himself and rise to the top of half the class over the past couple of weeks. He'd just do the same thing he did and train himself as well. As for Cardin he'd figure that out eventually. He hoped.

Jaunes scroll ringed at that moment. He looked at it, it was a message from Cardin.

"_Just wanted to make sure you remembered Professor Oobleck essay is due two days from now, don't forget."_

He looked at the sword laying on his desk. He'd be a hero somehow.

* * *

**POV Roy**

I had just finished with the last part of my routine exercise and was now sitting on the floor in the middle of one of the red sparring rings.

No one else was here at the moment. Most of the kids had left midway through his workout. Pyrrha and Ruby were the last ones to leave after finishing talking about whatever they were talking about. Not before Pyrrha shot a curious look my way as if wanting to come ask me something, she decided against it and left with Ruby.

So now it was just me by myself with about 30 minutes before the school faculties closed and curfew began. The reason I was here was quite simple. The endurance training was thing but what I was really trying to focus on was my semblance.

According to Professor Goodwitch and Professor Peach a semblance was an extension of one soul or personality. It could also be genetic or hereditary but those cases were extremely rare. Since I didn't know my parents or their semblances I doubted that I could simple find out if that was the case. It was more likely to be the former rather than the latter anyway.

What I knew about it so far was that when it had activated in my fight against Blake my sight, smell and reflexes had increased. But the most defining feeling had been the heat in my gut and and the burning sensation in my throat. What was most confusing though was that sense of incompleteness I had gotten when using it. Like it was only just a fraction or part of what my semblance was actually.

Normally when people in movies felt incomplete they sit down and meditate. So since I had no better idea about how to go about figuring out my semblance here I was sitting down cross legged my hand in my lap.

For the first couple minutes I sat there in silence trying to will something out of me. When nothing happened, I just groaned and hit my hands against the mat. Why did all the main characters make it look so easy. It was so infuriating, maybe I should talk to one of the Professors about this. Port, no scratch that I want to learn about my semblance not his youth. Miss Goodwitch or Dr. Oobleck would probably be a better choice.

Getting up to my feet I took a deep breath.

All of a sudden the lights turned off. Had it really been thirty minutes already?

I let out an exasperated sigh that felt unnaturally hot before turning around and making my way in the direction of where I believed the doors were located.

* * *

**POV Third Person**

What Roy didn't realize or probably would have realized if the lights were on was that the sigh he let out before heading out of the gym was hot because it was full of smoke and that his eyes glimmered green for a second. Alas, he did not see it and was left to stumble his way back through the dark to his dorm room cursing and muttering the entire way.

* * *

**Authors Notes: That's it for chapter 5. This one was a lot harder to write than the previous chapters. I suffered from writer's block at points. Mainly because it dealt with so many canon scenes and I had to mold them to fit Roy and the more nuanced personalities of team CRDL. I hope that I did a good job with the Cardin scenes, in the show he wasn't shown why he constantly bullied Jaune and Velvet so I tried to give some reasoning behind it this chapter to help flesh out his character. **

**Please tell me if I did a good job portraying Jaune and Pyrrha. I'm worried about how I'm writing them. It's a lot different than writing Roy or Team CRDL because they have little personality in the show. So I want to know if I stayed faithful to their show counter parts. I'm doing these POV changes because I'm probably going to do more of them in the future so I need to get the hang of writing canon characters close to there show counter parts. So feel free to tell me if I'm doing anything wrong.**

**In this chapter it was basically Jaunedice from Roy's view with some changes. I added in that part about his semblance to show he still working on it. The smoke was another hint at what it is.**


	6. Chapter 6 - Out of the Woods

Out of the Woods

* * *

**POV Jaune **

The past week had been hell on earth for Jaune. He'd spent literally all his free time doing him and Cardins extra readings and essays. He wasn't spending anytime with teammates outside of class either and they've grown distant because of it.

In fact here he was in front of Cardins dorm room to drop off an essay. At least he'd gotten better at writing them since he'd had to write twice as many now. With a resigned look on his face he knocked on the door.

It was silent before someone opened the door. It was Cardin who answered it. He looked down a Jaune because of the 5 inches separating them.

"Oh it's just you Jauney Boy." Cardin said with a chortle. Jaune cringed inside at the nickname.

Jaune looked around the hallways making sure no one else was around before saying "I've got the essay for Ports class done." He held out the papers and pushed them in Cardins chest and made quickly to get out of there.

A strong arm around his neck prevented his escape.

"Where do you think you're going Jauney Boy? That is anyway to treat your friends now is it? Aren't you going to pop in and say hi?" Cardin said in a fake hurt tone.

Jaune gulped as he was lead into the room. Before becoming "friends" with Cardin and his team he hadn't really known team CRDLS that well.

He spent most of his time with JNPR and team RWBY. Team RWBY had had a rivalry with team CRDLS of sorts during the first week but to call it a rivalry anymore wouldn't be correct since it was mainly team RWBY that won nowadays.

He wouldn't dare say that aloud though since the roles would be reversed if he got into a fight with them. Either way, aside from the fact RWBY didn't get along with them he knew divisively little about each member of the team. Sure there was Cardin who was pretty open with his personality, but aside from knowing their names were Sky Lark, Russel Thrush, Dove Bronzewing and Roy Salt they were fairly private. The only other thing that was described about them other than being minions or cronies was that Dove was a dirty fighter if Weiss indignants squawks were true.

But after spending the better part of the week with them for better or worse he'd gotten a better grasp on what they were like. Russel was a snarky asshole who always had something to say and need to be reminded to do his homework most of the time. Sky was a jokester and probably would have gotten along pretty well with Yang if he wasn't on team CRDLS or didn't make such insensitive jokes. Dove was the most reserved of the bunch and had some creepy tendencies he didn't feel safe explaining. Cardin was Cardin loud, proud and confident, as well as not afraid to let someone know it. That left Roy Salt, he was fairly normal he guessed but he always seemed to know what Jaune was thinking and it quit obviously freaked him out. Other than that he was constantly cleaning his armor or spear. The spear after seeing it up close was almost a carbon copy of Pyrrhas except for the color scheme and that it lacked the sword form.

He walked into the room to see the majority of team CRDLS lying around on the bed or at their desks.

"Hey guy look who decided to pay us a visit our _good _friend Jauney Boy." Cardin announced after shutting the door.

They all looked up from what they were doing to stare at him with different amounts of indifference.

"Sup Arc." Said Sky and that was it.

"Um hi." Was all that Jaune could muster out.

"So before you got here me and my team were just discussing about tomorrow's field trip to forever fall forest. And I just thought I should let you know that we're gonna need your help with it." Cardin explained.

"Um help with what exactly?" Jaune nervously asked.

"Nothing bad Jauney just a harmless little prank that's all." Cardin assured him.

"I don't know if that's a good idea, we could get in trouble." Jaune wanted to say Cardin would get in trouble but didn't dare say that.

"You came to beacon to become hero right? Hero's help their friends don't they?" Russel snarked.

They were using his words against him now.

"Why didn't you accept your partners help again, because God knows you need it." Sky asked?

"Because this is something I have to do on my own ok, if I don't do this by myself what good am I to prove I belong here." Jaune tried to explain to them why he need to do this on his own.

"Imma stop you right there." Said Russel, "you haven't proven anything at all, you snuck your way into Beacon. Has it ever occurred to you that you stole the spot from someone who was more deserving?

Jaune paused and looked down at his feet. To be honest it hadn't really until recently.

"You should have been jumping at the opportunity to learn from one of the best students in the school. If you did that you may have actually be able to make up for what you did?" Russel finished.

"Don't you guys understand I need to do this on my own to show my team that they can trust me to support myself without them carrying me." He looked over to Roy who was absentmindedly playing around on his scroll, "I'll just do what Roy did and then I prove myself to my team."

A look of genuine surprise crossed Roy's face something that Jaune hadn't seen before he looked around at the rest of his teammates.

Then they all started laughing. Jaune was bewildered what was going on.

Cardin looked to be wiping a tear from his eye, "wait you thought Roy Boy did all that improvement by himself." He laughed.

"Yeah he was at the bottom of the class just like me and managed to rapidly rise in a couple of weeks." Jaune said slowly.

"You know what follow me I'm gonna show you the secret behind his improvement. Come on guys let's go down to the gym." Cardin ordered.

Everyone in the room grabbed their weapons and armor and made their way out of the room.

"Wait what?" Jaune stood there confused.

**Down at the Training Facilities**

"So what are we doing down here?" Jaune asked worriedly.

"Well you said you wanted to make the same improvements as Roy right?" Cardin asked.

"Well yeah." Jaune answered.

"Good because we start now." Cardin said.

A vicious swing connected with Jaunes jaw and he went flying. He landed with a thud

"What was that for." Jaune groaned rubbing his chin. He was kicked in the back by Russel.

"You think that Roy just trained by himself and suddenly got better because he put a little more effort in?" Russel said.

Jaune got up on his feet and avoided a swing by Sky.

"We dragged him down here every morning when no one was around and simply beat him till he caught up." Said Sky.

A cloud of dirt was thrown in his eyes and while he back pedaled someone pulled his legs out from underneath him.

"He was actually quite similar to you when we told him." Dove said.

"He soon learned he didn't have much of a choice in the matter. That's the difference between you and Pyrrha and our team. We forced him to work with us and improve." Cardin finished.

It continued for a couple minutes and Jaune hit the ground a bit later.

A hand pulled him up and looked over to see it was Roy.

"I know how you feel Jaune and trust me you may feel like you have it all figured right now but soon your gonna learn that you were wrong. You aren't a burden to someone because you aren't as good as them. The point of a team is to lift everyone up to the same level not to drag around a weak link." He said.

"Go ahead run along now, just remember about tomorrow?" Cardin said.

Jaune nodded and got the hell out of there. He didn't get what they were talking about, his team didn't need his help they'd be fine without him. He was the weak link.

He walked all the way back to his dorm room pondering what Roy had said.

He stopped at his dorm and began to open the door until he heard voices.

"How come Jaune gets home so late?" He could hear Nora ask.

"He's become rather scarce since he started fraternizing with Cardin." Ren surmised.

"That's weird... Doesn't he know we have a field trip tomorrow? We need our rest!" Nora said enthusiastically

"I'm sure our leader knows exactly what he's doing." Said Pyrrha sounding angry.

"Mmmm... I guess so." Nora said but she didn't sound too convinced.

Jaune hung his head and closed the door, just then a voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Hey, Jaune!" Jaune jumped and turned around to the voice startled, "Long time, no see! Did you lock yourself out again?" The voice belonging to Ruby said.

"Oh, uh, nope!" Jaune said holding his scroll up her to show her. "Got it!"

"So! Where have you been lately? I've actually been trying to talk to you but you've kinda made yourself scarce lately. She said.

J "I, uh..." Jaune tried to come up with something but Jaune sighed and lowered his head "I messed up. I did something I shouldn't have, and now Cardin has me on a leash, and Pyrrha won't even talk to me, and..." He breathed heavily through his nose "I'm starting to think coming to this school was a bad idea." He fell against the wall and began to slide down his door onto the floor into a depressed state, "I'm a failure."

"Nope!" Ruby simply said.

Jaune looked at her in surprise "'Nope?'"

Ruby just smiled "Nope! You're a leader now, Jaune. You're not allowed to be a failure."

"But... what if I'm a failure at being a leader?" Jaune stuttered.

Ruby gave pause and seemed to think about it for a moment, then resumed "Nope!"

"You know, you're not the easiest person to talk to about this kind of stuff." Jaune somehow found it himself to laugh.

"Nope!" Jaune chuckled some more "Jaune, maybe you were a failure when you were a kid..." He groaned and looked away "... and you might've even been a failure the first day we met!" he groaned again and manger sink even lower still "But, you can't be one now. You know why?" Ruby questioned

"Uhhh, because...?" Jaune said aimlessly.

"Because it's not just about you anymore. You've got a team now, Jaune. We both do! And if we fail, then we'll just be bringing them down with us." Ruby got up and placed her hands on her hips as she spoke. "We have to put our teammates first, and ourselves second. Your team deserves a great leader, Jaune. And I think that can be you." she walked over to her teams door and opened it "Have a good night, Jaune!" She said as she went inside.

Jaune looked down at his hands. A team leader, That's what he was. He owed it to them to make it through this. They did need him, they needed him to be there for them and right now he wasn't. A well of resolve rose up in Jaune. He'd fix this somehow.

His scroll rang it was a message from Cardin "_remember about tomorrow." _He sighed and closed it. But now he didn't feel as depressed anymore and turned and opened the door to his teams dorm.

* * *

**POV Roy**

I watched as Jaune walked away from the training area confused. Sure this situation probably didn't happen in canon, scratch that definitely didn't happen in canon didn't mean I couldn't give Jaune a push in the right direction. This was a big risk I was taking, I was sure that didn't happen in canon so I knew my prescene is what caused it. That meant a big change from what was supposed to happen might be caused in the progression of Jaunes character becuase of it. That wasn't an option, so if I created this inconsistency then I would try and fix it. Hopefully my speech puts him pack on track with canon.

It was important that he finally developed some balls and went back to Pyrrha. It was a bit surprising that he thought Roy had improved by himself but I chalked that up to having a concrte example of what he wanted to do.

The important thing was that everyone would still be on track through what I knew was canon. After tomorrow all my supposed future knowledge will be gone and I'll be just as clueless as the rest of the students here. Then I could stop constantly worrying about screwing something up. I would finally be able to relax. I might have saud this before but the reason for continuing canonnand worrying about it so much was becuase innthe show by the end of epsiode 14 everything was looking upmand everyone seemed better than it was before. So why would I want to change something when I knew that outcome was already desirable.

Because of that I decided to only make some small changes to these parts of the story. Ones that woudn't effect the outcome of the Arc. For starters I convinced Cardin not to have ask Jaune to gather rapier wasps. Because of how I changed the conversation in Ooblecks class he was less antagonistic toward Said party and ended up settling for covering her up in sap. With that out of the way I didn't have to worry about Cardin going overboard and something big happening by accident. A small mistake was easier to fix than a Big change obviously.

That wouldn't happen if everything went according to plan and Jaune progressed just like in canon and Ruby should be talking to Jaune right about now just like in canon. I hoped my small interventions would push Jaune in the right direction mainly into Pyrrha's arms and balance out my being in the story. I shipped Arkos even if I didn't finish the series but I bet that it was part of the end game so I probably wouldn't be changing it that much if it happened a slight bit faster.

A shot to my leg brought me to my knees and looked up to see Cardin smirking down at me.

That was until he was walked over the head by Sky. Getting up I transformed _Greed _into its spear mode and jumped toward Dove.

**The Next Day at Forever Fall**

"Yes, students, the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful. But we are not here to sight-see. Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest, and I'm here to make sure none of you die while doing so." Professor Goodwitch explained to the group of students.

The group stopped, and Jaune, grunting and carrying a large case with seven empty glass jars on top, tried to catch up with us but he ended up bumping into Cardin. Cardin scowled at Jaune, who attempted to feign innocence by whistling tunelessly.

I listened on with disinterest.

Professor Glynda continued on with her instructions to the group of students before her. "Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of red sap. However, this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates. We will rendezvous back here at 4 o'clock. Have fun!"

I looked around at our group. There were three teams on this field trip. Well not actually, every Professor had 3 or 4 teams with them and were all in different parts of the field trip. It just so happened that teams RWBY, JNPR and CRDLS were in the same group, my guess was that because they were the top 3 in the first year rankings that they were put together.

Yang Xiao Long and her sister smiled at one another, and I saw Jaune attempt to sneak away from Cardin to his team, but Cardin saw this and grabs Jaune by the back.

"Come on, buddy - let's go!" He said to Jaune.

We walked off too are own way into the woods. Jaune immediately went to work filling up the jars of sap.

"Why do we even need this sap?" Asked Sky.

"Because grimm are attracted to it for some reason, if you paid attention to Professor Peaches lessons then you would know that she wishes to study its properties further in an attempt to make grimm attracting incense." I explained.

"Why would you want to attract grimm?" Said Russel.

"That way you can lead them into a kill zone and blow them up to kingdom come." Cardin said punching his hand into a fist for emphasis.

"It also tastes really sugary." Dove said.

I went and lied down next to a rock I wasn't gonna do any work I didn't have to. Besides, I had a lot on my mind basically. Most of it would pertain to the upcoming event happening in a bit. I had to be vigilant as my prencse in canon is what could affect this episode the most.

There was a multitude of things that could have changed. Jaune could end up not standing up to Cardin. The Ursa might not attack Cardin. Another team might find us. I had to hope that everything would play out like canon until the part I wanted to change.

Which was the Ursa fight. I didn't want my team to run away and become laughing stocks so I'd hope that into something different all while making sure Jaune completed his character Arc. No pun intended.

We waited around for a little bit while Jaune gathered the sap.

When he came back he collapsed onto the ground.

"Hey, great work, Jauney boy! Now that wasn't too hard, was it?" Cardin said.

Jaune who was still on the ground, cross-eyed and said dizzlity "I think I'm allergic to this stuff..."

"Greeeeat, great, great. So, Jaune, I bet you're asking yourself, 'Why did my buddy Cardin ask me to collect seven jars of tree sap when there's only six of us?'" Cardin said not caring in the slightest

Jaune just nodded, "That is one of the many questions I have asked myself today, yes."

Cardin simply said "Well, come with me, and you'll find out."

Jaune moaned for sec before getting up and following us.

We ended up at the base of the hill just like in the episode so everything was going according to plan.

It was me, Cardin, Russel, Sky and Dove lined up overlooking it and Jaune squeezed in between. The rest of team JNPR was down in the clearing. Ren was kneeling over by a tree filling up a jar of sap with Nora behind him.

He turned around to give her his full jar and took the empty one in her hands. As he turned around I watched as she slurped the entire container down in one gulp. I took a look at the jar of sap right next to me. I uncapped it and took a swab of it out with my finger and sampled. "_Bleh … to sweet." _How could she eat that, I was cringing from just a drop and she had just eaten an entire jar.

Pyrrha was off by herself away from them filling up her own jar.

Jaune turned to Cardin with a worried look on his face, "Cardin, Wh-hats going on?"

Cardin answered without even asking him, "Payback." That was all he said.

Jaune followed his gaze over to where he was looking before his eyes widened "Pyrrha? What … are you?"

"That's the girl, the red haired know it all who acts like she's so much better than all of us. Tried to make fun of me in class and expected me to just take it submissively, well boys we're gonna show her that we won't let her just walk all over us. Old Jaune here managed to gather a whole extra jar of sap and we're gonna put it to work." Cardin said begrudgingly.

It was good to know that my interference had stopped Cardin from making Jaune gather the rapier wasps.

Russel chuckled and clapped a hand over his shoulder.

"According to the essay you wrote me last week this sap is incredibly sticky and hard to get out of armor. So we're gonna make sure Pyrrha there learns a thing or two about it first hand." Cardin continued.

We all got up to our feet. Cardin offered a hand to Jaune and yanked him up hardly. Then he placed the extra jar of sap in his hands.

"And you're gonna do it." He said.

"Do what?" Jaune asked.

"Hit her with the sap." He leaned in closer to Jaunes face to make use of the height difference between them, "Either that, or I'll have a chat with Goodwitch, and you'll be on the first airship out of Beacon." He finished.

I watched as Jaune looked down at the jar of sap in his hands and then up towards team CRDLS. Jaune then turned toward his team down below and aimed his throw at the oblivious and smiling Pyrrha, I could practically see himself trying to steel his nerves and his hand was shaking to do the deed. All of a sudden the shaking stops and it seemed he ultimately steeled himself to do it.

On the inside I panicked. Was Jaune really going to do it? What would happen now? Canon would sure change and it could have untold consequences on team JNPR chemistry?

"No" Jaune said defiantly.

I sighed on the inside Jaune still had a good enough heart to put himself in front of his team.

"What did you say?" Cardin was decidedly less than content with the answer.

"I said NO." Jaune repeated again, this time with more confidence and gripped the jar in his hands tighter.

He turned around quickly and threw the jar a Cardin.

I watched it happen. The jar seemed to move in slow motion toward its target before speeding up and shattering into a million pieces against the metal bird insignia.

Jaune for his part seemed to realize what he had done and put his arms up defensively.

Cardin looked down slowly at his armor before looking back up slowly toward Jaune. He chuckled darkly "Oh, you've done it now..."

Jaune took a step back but was grabbed by Dove and Russel.

Cardin immediately sent a fist into Jaunes gut and Jaune crumpled with the force of the blow. He followed up kick to the back of the knee and Jaune hit the dirt.

I wasn't paying attention, I was busy scouting out the surroundings looking for the Ursa Major. But I didn't see any sign of it. Was it not here anymore because of my intervention? That would change canon!

Jaune hit the ground again with another thud.

"You know that wasn't very smart, Jauney boy." He picked him up by the collar with one arm and raised him up to eye level. "I'm gonna make sure they send you back to Beacon in tiny pieces, then they'll have to ship you out in a coffin after you're expelled." He growled.

Jaune just coughed back "I don't care what you do to me..." he looked back at Cardin "... but you are not messing with my team."

Cardin looked absolutely livid, "What? You think talk like that makes you tough? You think you're a big strong man now? That just because you've said that, that it excuses what you did to get here? That just because your the leader of some team you think that your justified to be here!"

"No." Jaune said with passion "it's because I am a leader that I have to stick up for myself. I owe it to my team to be the best leader I can be. Because I've learned that I can't be a failure of leader anymore with other people's lives in my hands. And that means letting myself get pushed around by you is failing my team, so it is no longer acceptable."

Cardin looked shocked for a second before it settled into a glare and he made to take a step toward Jaune.

*Growl*

We all turned around to see a gigantic Ursa Major stalking toward us.

"_Crap" _I thought how'd it sneak up on me? I didn't even hear it coming. It also showed up late for some reason as well.

It suddenly jumped forward and towered over us. It sniffed the air for a moment before zeroing in on Cardin.

I was too frozen from shock to do anything and I could only watch as the Grimms massive paw collided with Cardin sending him flying away. It looked at Jaune who was cowering on the ground before turning his attention back to Cardin.

"That's one big Ursa!" Russel said panicked.

"Russel, Sky you guys go get Professor Goodwitch." I yelled. "Dove you're with me."

Russel and Sky looked at each other then at me before nodding and hightailing it toward the bullhead we came here on.

Meanwhile Cardin had just recovered from the shock and hit of the Ursa. He brought out his mace to defend himself but it was immediately swept aside by the Ursas powerful paws.

Me and Dove made to intercept it before it could try anything further.

*CRASH*

We turned around to see another Ursa just as big and scary as the first.

"_What!" _I hadn't expected a second one to show up. Was it because of the extra sap or person in the area? Maybe a combination of both is what drew it here when it normally wouldn't have. Either way the odds now weren't looking to good. Where before it wa if you counted Jaune it was no only.

The second Ursa looked at us then at Cardin. It saw the first Ursa already going after him and decided that that was enough and charged at me and Dove instead.

Great now Dove and I can't make it to Cardin who no longer had a weapon.

* * *

**POV Jaune **

Jaune watched as Cardin was batted aside again by the Ursa. What was he supposed to do. He wasn't strong enough to take one of those on. What was worse was a second one had come around and prevented Roy and Dove from stepping in to help.

Russel and Sky had run off to get Professor Goodwitch so as soon as she got here everything would be ok, he told himself. But in the back of Jaunes mind he knew that she might not get here in time. He had to do something.

Sure Cardin had been a jerk to him the last couple of weeks but Jaune was pretty sure it was resentment over the fact he had cheated his way into beacon. Either way that didn't mean Jaune should just leave him there to take on a major grimm without a weapon. After all that talk of wanting to be a hero and proving himself if Jaune didn't step in now he'd just be proving Cardins assessment of him correct.

If there was a thing that Jaune knew, it was that he wanted to be a huntsman and a hero. So probably very stupidly Jaune jumped into action unsheathing _Crocea Mors _and expanding his shield to attack the Ursa.

He intercepted the blow before it could get to Cardin. It struck him right in the shield and Jaune swore that he could feel his bone shuddered and creak under the force of the strike.

"Jaune?" Cardin said bewildered.

The second swipe was not blocked by the shield and hit jaune right in the side.

A bright flash of light erupted around Jaune blinding him. When his eyes readjusted he found himself still standing up right and the Ursa a couple feet way shaking its paw in pain overall confused.

Jaune looked down at himself to see his hands and body glowing a dull white. "_My aura." _Jaune thought.

* * *

**POV Pyrrha a few minutes ago**

Pyrrha was just finishing packing her things up to go back to beacon when a loud Roar sounded throughout the forest.

"Did you guys hear that?" A concerned Ruby asked.

All of a sudden two blurs ran past her it was Russel and Sky of team CRDLS.

"Ursa, Ursa, Professor Goodwitch!" Russel was yelling looking around wildly. He wasn't looking where he was going and ran straight into Yang. He fell to the ground and was picked by his shirt by Yang who was unfazed by the collision.

"What… Where" she asked confused.

It was sky who answered. "Back there." He pointed from where he came, "it attacked Cardin!"

Pyrrha dropped the jar of sap that was in her hands. That means Jaune was also there and in danger. "Jaune!" She screamed.

Ruby immediately took control of the situation "Yang! You and Blake, go get Professor Goodwitch with them!" Yang and Blake nodded at her before following the orders and Sky and Dove.

Pyrrha looked at her own teammates as well "You two, go with them! There could be more!" She ordered. They turned and ran Of after the group.

She, Weiss and Ruby all looked at the direction that Dove and Sky had come from before taking off.

"_Please be all right Jaune." _Pyrrha thought worriedly.

* * *

**POV Roy**

There were many things that I noticed that were different about Ursas and Beowolves. For starters they were a hell of a lot slower so dodging and staying out of there range was pretty simple. Secondly they were tacky as fuck and in order to inflict serious damage you had to enter their range. Lastly they were strong, after dodging one blow and feeling the gust of wind in my face I questioned how Cardin hadn't been cleaved in half.

So far this battle had been a war of attrition with Dove and I staying back and spraying it down with a hail of bullets. I could tell it wasn't doing that much now. Sure it would kill the Ursa eventually, but me and Dove were kinda on a time limit right now because we needed to get to Cardin and Jaune.

Dove looked at me "We need a plan to kill it quick." He said.

"I know that already, what are an Ursas weak points again I?" I asked hoping it would help me come up with a viable plan of action.

"Their necks are incredibly weak, their bellies are unarmored as well as their joints." Dove explained.

I looked down at _Greed _in my hands specifically the slots for dust vials. I looked back at Dove. "Ok I think I have an idea." I said slowly.

* * *

**POV Pyrrha **

Her Ruby and Weiss came to the clearing to see two battles going on. On the far side of the clearing Roy and Dove were fighting a Ursa to a stand still. Closer to them was Jaune and Cardin.

Cardin was on the ground holding one of his arms his weapon was no longer in his hands. It was embedded in a tree not to far away.

And Jaune. Well Jaune was holding off another giant Ursa with his shield.

Weiss raised Myrtenaster up and posed to strike. But Pyrrha stopped her, "Wait." She said.

Jaune suddenly broke the brief stalemate between them and slashed at the beasts exposed stomach. It recoiled and tried to crush him. But jaune managed to roll away and jumped over a swing that was meant for his feet. The second arm fought him in mid air and he went flying onto the ground far away.

He got up from the ground and looked at his shield to see his aura was low. Charging forward again he went to meet the Grimm in a clash of blows.

Pyrrha watches the exchange in slow motion. Pyrrha can see that Jaune left himself completely open to the Ursa's attack and would surely die if it hit him. So she lifted her hand up in the air towards him, she let the familiar feeling of gathering dark red energy in her arm and moved it towards Jaune and the Ursa. Just as the Ursa is about to hit him, the glow surrounds Jaune's shield as well and slowly lifts it up to block the swipe. Jaune then unknowingly used the surprise defensive move to lean on the ground, push his shield back up, and swing his blade right through the Ursa's neck. The head fell to the ground with a splat as the body slammed onto the ground.

"Uhhh... What?" Said Ruby confusedly beside her watching Pyrrha's arm stop glowing.

"How did you...?" Said Weiss who was also as equally amazed by what had just happened.

"Well, Ruby has her speed, you have your glyphs. My Semblance is polarity." She simply said.

"Whoa, you can control poles..." Ruby said dumbfoundedly.

"No, you dunce! It means she has control over magnetism!" She berated Ruby.

"Magnets are cool, too..." Ruby said under her breath still in awe.

Weiss noticed that Pyrrha was turning to leave, "Wait, where are you going?"

"Yeah! We gotta tell them what happened!" Ruby joined in.

"We could... Or perhaps we could keep it our little secret?" Pyrrha said knowingly.

*BOOM*

What sounded like a thunder clap echoed through the clearing.

The three of them turned their heads to the far side of the open area to see a headless Ursa corpse evaporating a spear impaled in its chest. A couple meters away Roy was panting.

"Come let's get out of here." Pyrrha said. And they all walked back from where they came.

* * *

**POV Roy**

"Ok you know what to do right?" I asked.

"Yes." Dove nodded at me.

"Ok break." I said.

Dove moved forward first shooting continuous rounds at the Ursas head. It became annoyed with him and turned to face him.

Meanwhile I stayed back. I transformed _Greed _into its spear form and looked down at the slot that was filled with a vial of yellow powder. This feature was one of the few that wasn't copied from Pyrrha's spear, that belonged solely to _Greed. _It was a mechanism that used dust to augment it power and uses. I didn't use it that much because dust was expensive to buy and every use consumed an entire vial of dust.

*bang*

Dove shot at the Ursas face again blinding it momentarily to give him an opening to perform a quick slash against its spear elbow joint.

The Ursa roared in pain and took a blind shot at Dove who maneuvered out of the way of the attack. He kept doing his best to annoy the hell out of it, but the damage he was inflicting was pretty shallow.

I kept waiting for the signal to strike. As I was doing this a familiar heat built up in my stomach and a burning sensation appeared in my throat. My semblance was acting up again. It appeared to only flare up when I was in high pressure situations it seemed. I wasn't complaining about bough as the surroundings became much clearer and easier to understand.

My senses went to work and I felt power flow through me just begging to be used.

The Ursa having had enough with this annoyance reared up on its two back legs to its full height and pulled its good arm back to break Dove in half.

"Now!" Dove shouted.

That was it! The signal. I leaned back all my weight onto one leg, the other in front of me point forward. I pressed the but on _Greed _and the weapon came to life. Arcs of electricity and lightning bolts flowed along and through the metal tip down to the shaft of the spear due to the lightning dust being used.

I threw my arm forward digging deep into the well of power that I felt now in my stomach and let go.

*BOOM*

The sound it made when leaving my hand was the equivalent to a clap of thunder. It shot like a rocket toward the Ursa. Dove jumped out of the way just like planned.

The spear hit its mark, the unarmored portion of flesh that was only visible when it got on both of its hind legs. Instead of simply piercing through the flesh it cut through like butter and carried the entire Grimm with it till it collided with a tree.

The Ursa barely had time to look down at the spear protruding from its stomach before Dove dashed in and swiftly decapitated the beast.

I didn't have time to celebrate because as soon as I took a step forward the power that was in me a moment prior washed away in an instant, the burning sensation in my throat disappeared. I fell to my knees exhausted panting for breath.

I looked off to the side to see the Corpse of the first Ursa lying headless on the ground evaporating. Jaune was walking over to Cardin.

A hand was put on my shoulder and Dove hauled me to my feet.

* * *

**POV Cardin**

"Holy crap, Jaune!" Was the first thing that Cardin said when he helped him to his feet.

"Don't ever mess with my team - my friends - ever again." Jaune stared right at Cardin "Got it?"

He stayed silent.

Jaune turned and left the clearing.

Cardin was speechless. How had _that _just happened!

"Hey Cardin are you ok?" A voice called out.

He turned to the side to see Dove and Roy walking toward him. Roy had an arm slung around Dove.

"Yeah what about you guys?" Cardin asked half paying attention.

"Oh you know we're ok, just a bit winded." It was Roy who answered.

Cardin walked over to the tree that his mace was embedded in and tore it out.

"What's got you? You seem kinda out of it." Dove questioned

"Yeah, it seems that Jauney boy actually has a spine in him somewhere." Cardin mumbled.

"Hah really, I would have never thought that was possible." Laughed Dove

* * *

**Back at Beacon**

**POV Roy **

The trip back from beacon passed without much incident. It was pretty quiet especially Cardin. My guess he had trouble stomaching that he needed help from Jaune Arc of all people. He didn't like to be shown up like that, especially by someone he viewed as weak.

We all walked back to our dorm and I threw _Greed _on my bed. I had wasted an entire vial of dust on that Ursa, I'd have to find away to pay for that and some more.

Sky was the one who asked the question that hung in the air. "So what are we gonna do about Arc? Do we rat him out?"

"No." It was Cardin who answered. "We don't say anything."

"What! Why? He cheated his way into beacon. Russel said in disbelief. He seemed the most angry at Jaune. My guess is that Russel worked the hardest to make it into beacon and really was passed when he found someone had skipped on by.

"No we don't say anything, Besides if he dies out in the field he dies. If I rat him out know I'm the one who loses. And a Winchester Never Loses!" Cardin said with a grumble.

Russel looked like he wanted to say more but bit his tongue and walked into the bathroom.

I layed down in bed and stared at the ceiling. All my canon knowledge was gone and I was essentially free to do what I wanted now without having something nagging at the back of my mind. This Friday Professor Ozpin was shortening the classes so we'd have the rest of the day to ourselves to begin our preparations for the Vytal festival. Maybe I'd head out to beacon for the day enjoy the atmosphere. Find a part time job to pay for more dust vials or spend the day with the team who knows. But it felt good now that a weight that I didn't even realize was there was gone.

* * *

**POV Jaune**

Jaune stared out into the night sky with beacons main tower and green lights blinking in the center. He took a breath of the cool crisp night air gathering his courage. The sound of a door opening he heard.

"No Cardin tonight? I thought you two were best buds?" A voice said from behind him.

Jaune turned to see Pyrrha walking toward him. "Pyrrha... I'm sorry. I was a jerk! You were only trying to be nice, and... I had all this stupid macho stuff in my head-"

"Jaune! It's okay!" Pyrrha just smiled "Your team really misses their leader, you know." she motioned to the door she had come from "You should come down! Ren made pancakes! No syrup, though - you can thank Nora for that!" She giggled

Jaune watched her turn but before she could leave he reached his hand out "Wait!" She turned around and Jaune flushed a little bit "I know I don't deserve it after all that happened, but... would you still be willing to help me... to help me become a better fighter? I have had a lot of time to think and some people managed to get it through my thick skull how wrong I was and how harsh I treated your attempts to help."

Pyrrha turned around so quickly Jaune was worried she was gonna leave him up here by himself but she turned around again and walked up to him. She suddenly pushed him to the ground.

"Hey!" Jaune whined.

Pyrrha stood over him "Your stance is all wrong. You need to be wider and lower to the ground." She said in an evaluating tone with her hands at her hips before offering him a hand up. "Let's try that again." He took her hand and maybe because it was dark Pyrrha's cheeks looked kinda red.

* * *

**Authors Notes: That's it for chapter 6. This chapter took a lot longer than the others because I had to rewrite the beginning part with Jaune a couple times. I wanted to stay in character but also show the influence his extra interactions with Roy has caused. **

**The part with the two Ursa was mainly to showcase more of Roy's skill set and the draw back of his semblance so far. Being that it only activates in high stress situations and after it leaves he left incredibly fatigued. The only reason he didn't notice when fighting Blake was because he thought he felt tired from lack of oxygen not his semblance. Next chapter is gonna be set in Vale obviously and I have a small plan of what I'm gonna do.**

**As always comment what you liked and what you didn't like. **


	7. Chapter 7 - We Built this City

We Built This City

Friday came faster than I expected. Classes went by quickly and no one mentioned forever fall or Jaunes transcripts. So when we got out of class my team and I all went our separate ways.

Sky and Dove said they were heading out to see their family for the weekend so I bid my goodbyes to them. Russel had a part time job at a dinner in the city and would be working most of the weekend but would otherwise still be at Beacon.

So that lead to this, me and Cardin standing outside of the last class of the short day.

"So now what now?" I asked awkwardly.

Cardin looked down at me. "Well I'm heading down to the training grounds, I was useless without my weapon during that _incident_, so I'm going to correct that. You wanna come with me? He asked.

I thought about it, while training would have been beneficial I wasn't gonna lie I felt worked to the bone. Now that I was no longer worried about fucking up canon I could finally just focus on becoming the best huntsman I could be. Therefore I needed a day to unwind and a pat on the back for completing my mission even though no one would ever know about it. Also getting smacked around by Cardin all day for some unknown reason didn't seem that appealing. "Nah, I think I'm gonna spend the day down in Vale. You know spend some time looking around maybe grab a bite to eat." I answered.

And that is how I found myself on the first bull head out to the city of Vale.

Vale was nice. It had a nice urban city feel, kinda like how New York is portrayed in Spider-Man comics. I stepped out with some other students who were heading out to the city. Team RWBY was one of them, though I kept my distance from them. Our teams were still not on the best of terms. The only thing I heard them talking about was "greeting the new arrivals". Whatever that was supposed to mean.

I decided that the first thing I would do is try some of the city's festival food then pop on over to the Orphanage.

I settled on this noodle place because of the long line that was there. Clearly it must be good if so many people were willing to wait for it. The Shopkeeper was an old man with graying hair and permanently squinted face. He wore a normal attire with a red apron. He seemed to serve the customers with an unnatural quickness that was reminiscent of Ruby's semblance.

I liked my food plain so I just got normal noodles with nothing else. It tasted heavenly like it was melting in my mouth. I ate it as I walked to my next destination.

As I walked I saw the city officials setting up big welcome signs and parade preparations.

Eventually I made it to a familiar large building with a small staircase and brick overhang above it. The sign was a bit worn but you could still read it clearly enough.

**Vale City Orphanage **

I took a deep breath and walked up to the door and knocked. The sound of footsteps were heard behind before the door finally opened.

A woman was the one who answered the door. She had gray hair and bright blue eyes and pale skin. She looked a lot older than the memories I had of her. She looked up at me since she was only about 5' 6".

She gasped, "Roy is that you!" She exclaimed.

"Yes it's me Aunt Coleen." I said.

She was the one who found me outside of the orphanage on the doorsteps that night and subsequently gave me my last name.

"Come inside Come inside it's been so long since we've last seen you." She beckoned.

When I turned 13 I didn't spend much time at the Orphanage any more. Instead I would spend the entire day working in the city. I'd only be at the Orphanage for a place to sleep and keep my things.

Aunt Coleen helped run the Orphanage along with some other kind hearted women. There were probably about 50 kids staying there at a time till they were either adopted or old enough.

I obviously wasn't adopted early on when I was still young enough, instead all the other kids my age were chosen. I don't know why but I was most likely just a victim of random chance. Growing older in an Orphanage meant a shrinking chance of getting adopted so eventually I came to terms with that. So I did option two which was get ready to live on my own. In my case it was training to be a hunter and I hadn't visited the place since being accepted to participate in the schools initiation.

Aunt Coleen lead me through the various rooms and across the main dining hall where a large portion of the orphans were eating. I looked over at them and there were a few kids that I recognized.

We eventually ended up in her office. She motioned me to sit down and I complied.

"So tell me what's it like at Beacon I haven't seen or heard from you since you left for the initiation." She slapped my hand, "No calls or Texts I know you have scrolls over there."

I flushed at that. "I was really caught up in getting adjusted to my new life at beacon that I just hadn't found the time to send a letter I guess." I said sheepishly.

"Don't give me that excuse, now tell me what's Beacon like? How's your team? Are you eating enough? You've made friends right? It's not too difficult?" She rapid fires concerned questioned at me.

"It's ok, ok. Beacons great, the teachers are all really nice and know what there doing." I thought back to Professor Ports class, "most know what their doing. As for my team I had a little friction at first but we've smoothed things out now. Yes I've made friends and I'm keeping up with my classes.

"Ooh I'm so proud of my little salt boy. He's grown up to be a big strong hunter, I'm sure the ladies are just swarming to get him." She cooed.

This time I turned as red as a tomato. "Stop it, it's nothing like that ok. You're embarrassing me."

She gave me a sly look "Sure, let's go see some of the younger kids I'm sure they want to see what you been up to. After all you being a huntsman in training has them all talking about you and looking up to you." She said.

We walked back to the main dining area and up to the group of kids eating lunch. They turned their heads immediately toward the two of us approaching.

"Roy is that you?" A small kid with red hair shouted.

"It is indeed squirt." I said.

The kid jumped up from the table and ran over to us and wrapped me up in a big hug. Though because of the height difference it was really only around my knees.

"Is it true you're training to become a real life huntsman now? The little kid asked.

His name was Tora and he was a five year old at the Orphanage. He grew attached to me after it seemed he wouldn't be adopted. He was a good kid that I was pretty fond of. When I told him about being a huntsman he was hooked and said that he wanted to grow up to be one as well.

"It is true little man, you are looking at an official Beacon academy student." I said elegantly throwing a little bow in at the end.

"Really! That's so cool." He gasped. I could see the stars in his eyes.

This had gotten the rest of the tables attention.

"Wait really!"

"Big Brother Roy's a huntsman now!"

"That's so awesome."

An echo of excitement buzzed through the table before they all got up and surrounded me.

"What's it like there."

"Is it true you really have killed the creatures of grimm."

"Are you the top of your class."

"Settle down guys, I assure you I'll answer everyone's questions don't you worry." I said to the small mob around me.

"What was it like getting into Beacon?" Tora asked.

"Well that's a long one I'm not sure you'd want to listen to that." I answered.

"No we wanna hear it."

"Please."

"What was it like?"

"Ok ok I'll tell you." I relented "It all started with the headmaster of Beacon Professor Ozpin launching us into the sky with large springs …" I began, "We all had to find different ways to land safely…"

* * *

"And then me and my team became an official team at Beacon." I finished.

"Wow that's so cool." It was Tora who spoke.

"Yeah, I wanna be a huntsman now."

"Same."

"Ditto."

A chorus of agreement murmured throughout the group. I looked down at my scroll I'd been here for almost an hour.

I looked over to Aunt Coleen who had been standing against the wall watching me recount my acceptance into beacon. "I think it's time I head off." I told her.

"That's ok." She said, "just don't forget to write this time, as you can see you have numerous admirers who want to know how your time at school is going."

"Yeah don't forget about us now that you're going to a big huntsman academy." Said Tora.

"I promise I won't guys." I swore. I made my way to the entrance of the Orphanage by myself and opened the door to the outside. I still had plenty of time to myself before I had to be back a beacon at nightfall.

I stepped out to the busy sidewalk.

"Penny where are you!"

Someone collided with me.

Whoever it was went down with me and landed on top of me.

I looked up, it was a girl. She had dark skin with navy blue hair and a golden symbol on her forehead. She was wearing a blue combat skirt and beret with a white gold trimmed top.

"Oh I'm so sorry sir." She said it started off high pitch but quickly settled down to a monotone soldier like addressing of me while getting off me. That was weird.

Her and I both stood up I'd say she was about 5' 5" so I ended up dwarfing her by 10 inches with my 6' 3" frame. I took another look at her attire. "Are you one of the teams coming to Vale to participate in the Vytal festival." I asked. This was the first day that the bulk of the other students from Shade, Haven, and Atlas Academy were supposed to arrive anyway. The long weekend was going to be used to help move in the excess students into the guest dorms.

She looked at me inquisitively before answering "That is the correct assumption, yes." She glanced down at her wrist watch for some reason. "I apologize about running into you, It was my fault that I wasn't looking where I was going. I was in a hurry because my partner ran off without me and I really need to find her since she's not supposed to be by herself."

"No no, it's my fault I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings." I apologized to be polite before I paused. "Looking for your partner what happened? If you don't mind me asking." I added quickly at the end.

"I am required to keep an eye on my teammate since she can be a bit handful sometimes and be distracted by minor things. I only left her alone for." She looked down at her wrist watch again, "4 minutes and 36 seconds before she took off somewhere on her own. By any chance have you seen her?"

"What does she look like by any chance?" I asked.

"My mistake. She's about my height, skinny build. She's got pale skin and short curled orange hair with green eyes. She's a bit eccentric so she'd stand out in a crowd." The girl explained glancing at her watch again.

I thought back to my day I don't think I saw anyone like that so far. Vale was a big city so her partner could be anywhere. "No I'm afraid I haven't seen anyone matching that description at all today." I said with a tinge of disappointment at not being of some help.

"Oh, it's ok, thank you for your cooperation though, now I really need to get going since I really can't let my partner be off by herself this long." She thanked.

She turned to leave and walk away.

"Wait!" I called back to her.

She turned back around to look at me now with a suspicious look on her face.

"Would you like some help looking for her, I may not look it right now but I'm actually a student at Beacon Academy so I know my way around Vale." I suggested. I wasn't wearing my armor of course, only a black and purple hoodie with the same leathery wings symbol on the front as my armor had. I also wore black combat boots and grey khaki pants to go with it. I still had _Greed _on my though. I was totally helping because I had free time and out of the goodness of my heart, definitely. It had nothing to do with the fact that she was a cute girl or that Aunt Coleens conversation was still in the back of mind, not at all.

She paused to think about it looking me up and down searching for any ulterior motive. She glanced down at watch once more.

"It would probably help save time as well if you knew where to search too." I added.

That seemed to sway her. "Okay I will accept your assistance in this matter." She stated.

"Great, My names Roy Salt by the way, first year at Beacon Academy." I introduced myself.

A hint of red crossed her face "oh dear, I completely forgot to introduce myself. My name is Ciel Soleil, first year at Atlas Academy." She added a little salute at the end.

"Ok Ciel where was it that you lost your teammate to begin with? What's her name?" I figured it would be best to start where it began.

"Here name is Penny Polendina and I lost her at the harbor when we arrived here at the docks."

"So she's probably not there any more but the market and a famous club are nearby which are very popular, perhaps she wandered off to over there? Follow me I know the quickest way." I started to walk toward the newly renovated Club. I heard a rumor that Yang was the one who caused the closing in the first place but I couldn't confirm it.

Ciel followed me down the road.

**An Hour Later **

Her teammate Penny wasn't at the Market it the Club so we circled back to the docks. I took the time to try and get to know Ciel but she was pretty typed lipped it seemed. I learned she was the leader of her team and that she grew up in Atlas with her family.

I attempted to keep the conversation going by telling her about my team, team CRDLS and how I was on a five man team. But the conversation stalled out. So much for making my first female friend now that I was a huntsman in training. She did seem to warm up to me though since she no longer sent suspicious looks at me like she had at first. Hooray for a tiny bit of progress I guess?

It wasn't until we were walking along one of the main roads from the docks that we had any progress what's so ever. I spotted a short blob of orange hair disappear around the corner. "Over there!" I shouted. I took off after the orange blob left Ciel in the dust.

I turned the corner in an instant only to collide with what felt like a metal pole. I fell down to the pavement on my ass. "Ow who put this pole here." I groaned rubbing my head.

I looked up at what I hit and menatlly groaned. It wasn't a pole that I ran into, no it was one Pyrrha Nikos. Next to her was the rest of team JNPR.

She turned around and I saw her eyes narrow when she recognized me. Oh dear! The rest of the team also turned to look at me each with varying degrees of reactions. Ren looked impassive as usual only a raised eyebrow to show that he had noticed. Nora regarded me with a cheerful smile but it was betrayed by the fact I saw her hands tightened into fists. Jaune made eye contact with me before awkwardly looking away.

It was Pyrrha that was the worst though. She was treating me with a guarded expression like I might attack at any moment. I'm pretty sure she found out about what happened to Jaune somehow and definitely moved my team up to the top of her shit list. Which was totally unfair by the way. If anything I helped him into your arms! He would have just tried to train by himself and neglected his team if I hadn't gone through such lengths to keep canon the same. You should be thanking me? Not giving me that look!

I got up and dusted myself off. "Sorry I thought you were someone else." I rubbed the back of my neck sheepishly trying to be as polite as possible.

"Yeah sure you did." Pyrrha said in a tone that said she was anything but convinced that that was the case."

"No honest, I was looking for someone that had orange hair and I saw Nora and confused her for someone else." I said taking a step forward and pointing at Nora.

All of a sudden Pyrrha and Nora both took a step in between me and Jaune. They clearly thought I saw Jaune by himself and was chasing after him to harass him or something. They weren't going to let me anywhere near their team leader. Who for his part did is best to look unaffected by the notion.

I took a step back realizing what they thought I was hostile and put my hands up in a placating manner. "Seriously it was an accident." I said apologetically.

"Yeah it was all an accident, everything that happened was just an accident." Nora said through gritted teeth. I was definitely the most scared of her so I did what my body was screaming to do and immediately started back paddling. She made to follow.

Luckily at this time Ciel came in to save me from my predicament.

"Roy did you find Penny you just took off without me." She asked as she turned the corner.

Team JNPR paused confusion appearing on their faces.

I took the chance to get out of there.

"No, no it's not her just someone else, I guess my mind played a trick on me haha." I said with a quick laugh putting my hands on her shoulders and steering her away from team JNPR and back to where we came from half pushing her.

We continued this way for a bit and I looked back to make sure we weren't being followed, team JNPR hadn't gone after me. I sighed and stopped.

Ciel immediately shook my hands off her which I hadn't realized were still on her shoulders.

She turned around quickly "what was that about!" She said her voice no longer monotone and a higher pitch for once and her face seemed a bit darker for some reason.

"Me and that team aren't on the best of terms right now." I said rubbing the back of my neck again.

She huffed, which was adorable though I wouldn't say it aloud. "Well you didn't see Penny did you? It's been …" She said and glanced at her watch, "almost 2 hours since I lost her I'm getting worried, I could get in a lot of trouble for not carrying out my assignment correctly."

"No I didn't see her but we still got some other places to check I'm sure this Penny can take care of herself." I tried to calm her down.

We continued on down on a different path away from where JNPR had been in search of Ciel lost partner.

About 15 minutes later we finally hit the jackpot. On one of the less busy streets looking into one of the shop windows was a girl that fit Ciel description. Orange hair slim build and pale skin. I also could of sworn that I saw team RWBY walking away as well.

"Penny over here! where have you been?" Ciel yelled over to her.

The girl known as Penny looked over to us and tensed. It seemed like she might bolt but decided against it and stayed put as we walked over to her.

"Penny where have you been all day, you know Headmaster Ironwood has assigned me to look over you." She berated Penny.

She looked like she was about to respond but Ciel cut her off.

"You know what it doesn't matter, please don't do it again." Ciel said.

"Hoorah mission accomplished, Penny has been found." I said trying to lighten the mood.

"Ah yes thank you for your help you today. I doubt I would have found Penny as quickly if I had been searching by myself. Atlas Academy extends its thanks." She said.

"It's no problem, I don't mind helping. In fact if you ever need help getting around Vale or Beacon you can just call me on my scroll if I give you my number." I offered. Fuck it, mine as well shoot my shot as they say. I doubt that she would accept with how she'd been acting all day though.

But to my surprise though she looked away and coughed a bit "Why yes, I suppose it would be efficient to have a guide in a City we're unfamiliar with."

She reached her hand out and it took me a second to realize she was asking for my scroll to put her number in mine. I quickly did of course.

She nervously glanced down at her watch. "Oh no, Penny we need to move now to group up with the rest of the Atlas Academy students. Bye Roy."

Her and Penny quickly left but I didn't really notice since I was still looking at the scroll in my hand.

I just got a hot girls number! That was better than anything I had done before in both my life on Remnant and my memories of Earth! Maybe she wasn't considering like I was, but still a numbers a number. I calmly walked back toward the direction of Beacons airship port and turned the corner. Looking around to make sure no one was looking.

"Yes, Yes, let's go!" I chanted. I may or may not have started shadow boxing as well.

After the euphoria of the moment wore off, I started to make my way back to Beacon grinning like an idiot the entire way.

* * *

**POV Ciel**

"So I made a friend today and I had lots of fun too." Penny said quietly before adding "I'm sorry about leaving you behind."

Ciel just sighed, didn't she understand that she was for some reason or another highly valued by Atlas Academy a big honor for sure. "Please just think before you run off when we're here in Vale Penny."

"Ok Ciel." She responded. After a pause she added, "did you make any friends today?"

"What? No …" Ciel paused. She thought back to the day she spent looking around for Penny with Roy. For all intent and purposes she should have been annoyed but she actually had a nice time touring the city and Roy at least tried to keep the conversation going. Most students at Atlas didn't talk much. She'd even sheepishly given him her number. But it was only in case she needed a guide, of course "You know what I guess I did Penny."

"Sensational." The orange haired girl whispered.

* * *

**POV ROY**

By the time the bullhead that I had taken back to Beacon got to the school it was pretty much already dark out. I thought back on the day I had spent in Vale. Visiting Tora and Coleen at the Orphanage and helping Ciel look for Penny. I smiled probably like a goofball. I'd mark this day as a success in my book.

After all the work to make sure canon stayed its course and the fact no one would ever thank me for it I really needed a nice day off like this. Things seemed to be really turning up for me.

Now all that I had to focus on is making sure that my team was one of the 8 teams from Beacon that we're selected to compete in the Vytal Tournament. It was teams from 1st through 3rd year so it wasn't easy. All of the fourth year's weren't included since they were constantly taking on missions and focusing on getting their actual Huntsman licenses.

I was pretty sure teams team JNPR and team RWBY would be selected as they were Uber talented and were main characters of course. Teams BLZE and CFVY would definitely make it as they had more experience and were the top of their respective years class rankings. Which meant there were only four spots really up for grabs.

I'm sure that Cardin would be working the team extra hard to put us in consideration for one of the coveted spots. Speaking of the team, I still had the rest of the weekend to myself before we had classes again, this time with the visiting students joining in. Maybe I should spend the day with them to get some team bonding in. That's what a lot of teams seemed to be doing. Though it'd only be me, Cardin and Russel with Sky and Dove out of the picture.

Now that I thought about it I would probably be seeing Ceil and her team more often since they might be in classes with us now, who knows maybe they'd even sit with me and my team. Yup things were definitely on the up swing for one Roy Salt that's for sure.

I stopped at the statue in the middle of the courtyard. The one with the Huntsman, Huntress and Beowulf. I was behind it and past it was the walkway that lead to the first year dorms. I looked up at the statue just like I had the last time I gazed at it in the beginning weeks.

This time though instead of looking up in awe at their marble faces and the ideals that they represented, I was looking at their backs. It felt like instead of being an admirer, right now I was following in their footsteps, them being a benchmark for my career as a huntsman.

I was about to continue on my way back to the dorms but the sound of sprinting and panting caught my attention. I was pretty late to be back why would anyone else be up at this time?

I walked slowly around the statue and peered over to where I heard the noises. What I saw nearly caused my eyes to bulge out of their sockets. It was Blake!

Why was she out this late? She'd been with her team this morning so shouldn't she be with them?

She didn't seem to notice me and I planned to keep it that way. We hadn't had the most friendly of interactions up until this point. She looked up at the Monument to the Huntsmen fighting the Grimm.

Then she slowly reached up to her bow. Grabbing one end of it she pulled the knot undone and it came off.

What I saw caused my mind to do a double take. In the place where her bow had just been was a pair of living twitching feline ears. Blake was a faunus!

How had I not noticed something like that.

But the more I thought about it the more it made since. The defending of the faunus in class and hostility displayed toward the anti-faunus side of the Great War. As well as the way she called out the Schnee Dust Company when she first met Weiss. At first I thought she was just an activist and it was part of her characters personality, but it made so much more sense for her to feel that way if she actually was a faunus.

Hell even the way she reacted to when I hit her bow in our spar made more sense now. Her ears were probably really sensitive and could explain the panic and pain that shot across her face when there's been endangered.

It even made perfect sense thinking about it in terms of a team of main characters. It would be smart from a narrative perspective to have at least one of the four main characters be one of the two main races presented in the show. Her bow did sometimes twitch in class and I always thought I was seeing things. Clearly I was a grade A idiot for not noticing something like that. It would probably would have been really obvious if I had watched her trailer too I bet.

All these answers still didn't bring a clue to why she was out her by herself now? And why was she taking off her ribbon now if she wanted to remain hidden amongst the student body. More importantly was this a dangerous situation for me to be in? Would she react negatively if she knew I knew her secret? How far was she willing to go to keep it hidden?

Well maybe I didn't want to stick around to find out. If she didn't know there was no harm no foul, Right? So I backed up slowly and began thinking of a way to make it to the dorm rooms without going by her. She was after all in the main pathway, I'll just cut through the courtyard or simply wait away from here for her to go back to the dorms. On one of the steps backs I was taking I heard a *Snap*.

I froze.

I looked down at my left foot, underneath it was a twig that must have fallen down from one of the trees in the courtyard. Had Blake heard that? Maybe she was too lost in her thoughts? How good were cat ears anyway?

I looked slowly back to where Blake had been standing trying to be as quiet as possible.

The spot she had been in was vacant!

She wasn't there anymore! She was gone without a trace. My heartbeat sped up significantly and I took another step back. The another.

This time my back hit something or someone when I was moving backward. I jumped and turned around. I was met with a pair of golden orbs looking right back up into my dull purple ones.

What I saw was a tense mixture of panic and anger and something that resembled fear all strewn on her face. Her cat ears were flattened slightly. She opened her mouth to say something.

But I decided I had had enough and was not going to put myself in needless danger. Sure she's a main character and some people would say she wouldn't harm me because she's pure hearted or something. But after what happened during my match with her when I nearly found out about her faunus heritage she ended up trying to strangle me. So forgive me if I wasn't going to risk my life on what she would do now that I had actually found out her secret, something she was keeping secrecy for a reason. Quite possibly a dangerous reason. So I did the most logical thing that came to my mind. I turned around and bolted toward the Beacon dorm rooms. If I could make it to my dorm room with Russel and Cardin in it I knew I would be safe.

I heard footsteps behind me and I quickened my pace. Sure Blake may have been faster than me but I had a head start. I still had fifty meters to go before I reached the door.

40 meters

30 meters

The footsteps were drawing closer and more adrenaline flowed into me fueling me to sprint at even greater speeds.

25 meters

20 meters

15 meters

I heard the click and press of something metal a bit behind me but still closer than it was before. She wasn't seriously going to shoot me was she? I had enough aura to shrug those off till I got to the door and her weapon would surely make a lot of noise.

10 meters

5 meters

4 meters

3 meters

2 meters

I was gonna make it! Just when I thought I was in the home stretch I heard something shoot. Something black wrapped around my ankles and all of my movement was constricted the halted. My momentum kept me going forward and I fell face first into the concrete all tangled up.

I reacted quickly and put my hands out in front of me to catch myself. I tried to crawl away and toward the door that was a meter way but the ribbon around my legs suddenly began pulling away from the doors. I clawed at the ground to try and stop myself but it was no use I couldn't get a grip on anything solid. Why were the walkways so smooth!

The pace quickened and that just cause me to keep struggling but even harder on my end until it finally stopped. I sat up like a lightning bolt and went for the ribbon binding my legs together. But I stopped when I felt a long blade get placed against my throat. My heart skipped a beat or two and I froze what I was doing.

I slowly looked back up at Blake. I met her golden eyes once more. This time though there was only a terrified look in them. I went to open my mouth and scream for help. Surely with me this close to the dorms someone would be awake to hear me. But before I could I felt a hard blow to my cranium right underneath the back of my skull. Then everything around me went black. I could only vaguely hear the sound of heavy breathing. I didn't know if it was my own though.

But before I slipped away into total unconsciousness I heard something.

"Whoa, I was just waiting for you to take that thing off but what the hell happened. Why did you do that." The voice sounded masculine and unfamiliar with the tinge of some accent.

The rest of what was being said after that turned into a distant ininteligible garbage.

That was all I heard before my mind slipped into the complete and utter blissness that was unconsciousness.

* * *

**Authors Notes: That's it for chapter 7. This sure was a hectic one that's for sure. Big things are happening. So Roy took a stroll through the city today and visited the Orphanage he grew up in. Then he met up with the partner of a certain orange haired android. And dare I say he succeed in acquiring her number. I felt adding her into the story would help separate Roy's story more and help create more connections that weren't presented in the show. Then the big ending with Roy stumbling upon Blake taking her ribbon off after her fight with Weiss. So now Roy's gotten himself into one hell of a mess. Poor guy and he thought things were going so well too.**

**On another note about the story I wanted to thank you all for your feedback. The good and the bad they both help me iron out the details and the flow of the story. For example, I went back to the previous chapters to add more thoughts of how Roy is terrified to change the canon out of concern of messing something important up. The way I see it is that someone who has only seen the first 14 episodes of RWBY being thrown into this situation would think that the outcome shown in the show is the best outcome. Roy sees no harm in letting it run its course as it isn't negatively affecting him. This reasoning is why he is worried about changing things, so he doesn't do anything during the Velvet scene because it's an important event in Jaunes Arc as a character. He may not like it but it has to be done. **

**However now that he's gone past his future knowledge he'll start changing things without realizing it. As always I hoped you enjoyed and comment what you liked and disliked.**


	8. Chapter 8 - Smooth Criminal

You've Been Struck by a, Smooth Criminal

Darkness that's all I saw at first. But it gradually changed to grey and from grey to white. As soon as it turned white my eyes finally opened.

I groaned, why did my head hurt so much? The memories of last night came crashing back, Blake, faunus, Secret, Kidnapped. My mind cleared itself and I jumped out of the seat that I was in.

At least that's what I would have done if I were not tied by my arms and legs to said chair. I also had a piece of duct tape taped over my mouth. I didn't feel _Greed _in its compacted form either along with my scroll. So I was constrained and without my weapon, this was bad.

I watched enough true crimes on tv from my memories of earth to know that the most important thing to do was remain calm and look for an opportunity. So I took a deep breath through my nose and took a look around at the room I was in.

No lights were on and the windows in the room were all blinded and letting in very little natural light. Enough for me to make out most of the most prominent features of the room I was in. There was a door all the way on the wall in front of me.

A couple chairs and tables were littered around the place thrown off to the side. All in all it seemed incredibly vacant. I struggled against the bindings again.

Damn they were tight and strong. The room was quiet and I could make out the sounds of traffic and bustle from the outside, so I was still in the city, that was good.

I heard footsteps coming outside the door and the door knob begin to jiggle.

I closed my eyes and went slack to pretend to be unconscious.

"I can tell that you're awake." A voice said.

* * *

**POV Blake**

Blake was sitting down at a table on the second floor of the outside dining area gathering her thoughts on what had transpired the previous day.

At least she would be doing that if it wasn't for the golden haired Monkey Faunus giving her a curious look. Yeah he also something that happened yesterday.

* * *

**The night before**

Blake looked at the now unconscious form below her. This Wasn't supposed to happen. She was going to try and talk to Roy but he had bolted before he could say anything. After that her training from the White Fang kicked in and she ended up restraining him.

Blake was panicking. At least her team hadn't known she was a cat Faunus or fanunus in general. She just had to be so stupid to take off her bow in the middle beacon. She should have realized that there might be people about. What was she going to do now. Roy would immediately tell his team and how she attacked him. She would be kicked out of the school at best. Even worse, he could tell her team and they'd track her down and make her confess her times in White Fang then she wouldn't have to worry about being expelled. No she'd have to avoid being thrown into prison. Then her parents would find out and she'd drag them into her mess.

She needed to disappear and fast.

"Whoa, I was just waiting for you to take that bow off but what the hell happened. Why did you do that." A voice said behind her.

She jumped. "_How did someone sneak up on me again!" _Right behind her was a boy with blond shaggy hair. His outfit also consisted of gray shorts and a loose white colored jacket that was open up with no sheet underneath.

Blake recognized him as the Faunus that they were chasing from the docks. What was he doing here?

He looked at her again before saying. "I can tell by the way you acted in the city and with your friends that you're not a bad person. So I'm gonna ask you again, what was that all about."

"How do you know anything about me?" Blake shot back before suspiciously looking at him, "have you been spying on me." She accused.

The boy took a step back. "Hey in my defense you guys were chasing after me first. So color me curious as to why you were following me and even more when I saw a faunus hiding underneath a bow with her team."

Blake calmed down a bit. The adrenaline from both her team and someone else finding out her secrecy was wearing down. "I didn't mean for this to happen, I panicked and this ended up happening."

"Sheesh remind me not to make you angry," he looked at her and the look she was giving him, "I mean uhh, I'm Sun Wukong student from Haven Academy."

"Are you going to turn me in." Blake said getting ready to flee.

"Nope." Sun said.

"What." Blake said incredulously.

"I said already, I know your a good person." He said seemingly not sensing the mood. "But what are you gonna do now?"

"I'm gonna get out of here. I need some time to think to myself." Blake said. She could hide out in the city it was big enough.

"What about him?" Sun said pointing to the unconscious Roy.

"I don't know, as soon as he wakes up he'll go right to the Professors and everyone will know." Blake said. She was so lost right now. Her world was turning upside down.

"Why not just ask him not too?" Sun said with a shrug.

"What, that's a stupid idea why would he do that." Blake said

"Well the way I see it, you still have a chance to talk to him out of it. If you leave now you only be painting yourself as guilty." Sun reasoned.

Blake looked between Sun and Roy and took a deep breath.

* * *

**Present **

So here Blake was in the middle of Vale hiding in plain sight. It had been almost two days since it happened. She looked at Sun. "So do you really want to know?"

Finally, she speaks! Nearly two days and you gave me nothing but small talk and weird looks!" He said and noticed the look she was giving him. "Yeah, like that one."

Blake rolled her eyes at that, before taking a deep breath and beginning "Sun... Are you familiar with the White Fang?"

"Of course! I don't think there's a Faunus on the planet who hasn't heard of them. Stupid, holier-than-thou creeps that use force to get whatever they want. Bunch of freaks, if you ask me!" He said with disdain.

Blake took a sip of her drink. "I was once a member of the White Fang."

Sun choked on his drink, forcing him to put it down and wipe his mouth as he held up his hand to process that "Wait a minute, you were a member of the White Fang?!"

Blake nodded "That's right. I was a member for most of my life, actually. You could almost say I was born into it..."

Blake thought of the old Fang with her father in charge and the old symbol of the white and blue.

"Back then, things were different. In the ashes of war, the White Fang was meant to be a symbol of peace and unity between Humans and the Faunus." Blake lamented.

"Of course, despite being promised equality, the Faunus were subjected to discrimination and hate. Humanity still thought of us as lesser beings. And so, the White Fang rose up as a voice of our people. And I was there." Blake said sadly.

"I was at the front of every rally. I took part in every boycott. I actually thought we were making a difference. But I was just a youthful optimist" Blake said remembering every rally, standing up with a sign in hand.

"Then, five years ago, our leader stepped down, and a new one took his place. A new leader, with a new way of thinking." Blake said.

Blake remembered the changes. They happened slowly at first. Until one day you just woke up and things were just different. It wasn't a good change though.

"Suddenly, our peaceful protests were being replaced with organized attacks. We were setting fire to shops that refused to serve us, hijacking cargo from companies that used Faunus labor. And the worst part was, it was working. We were being treated like equals. But not out of respect... out of fear." She explained.

Blake got a flashback to Sienna Khan standing in a dominating manner with a malicious grin. Blake put down her teacup and looked up to see in front of a stunned Sun.

"So, I left. I decided I no longer wanted to use my skills to aid in their violence, and instead, I would dedicate my life to becoming a Huntress. So here I am: a criminal hiding in plain view, all with the help of a little black bow." She wiggled her cat ears beneath the fashionable disguise. "At least it had."

Sun just sat there silently for a second before saying "So... have you told your friends any of this?"

"No, I ran away after I exposed myself. They just assume I was in the White Fang." Blake admitted.

"Did you think they were prejudiced against faunus." Sun asked.

"What No! Of course not Ruby and Yang aren't and even Weiss for all her faults wasn't blatantly racist." Said Blake offended at the accusation.

"Then why didn't you trust them with the truth." Sun countered

"I-I was to scared, that they might reject me." Blake said her bow flattening. "Besides I need proof that the White Fang aren't behind these attacks. I know they aren't they've never need that much dust before."

Sun eyes widened "What if they did?" He said while making a bunch of erratic arm movements. "I mean... the only way to prove that they didn't do it, is to go to the place where they would most likely go to if they were to do it, and not find them there! Right?"

Blake digested that "The only thing is, I've no idea where that would be." She pointed out.

"Well, while I was on the ship, I heard some guys talking about offloading a huge shipment of Dust coming in from Atlas." Sun offered.

"How huge?" Blake asked.

"Ginormous. Big Schnee Company freighter." Sun exclaimed.

"You're sure?" Blake questioned.

"Yeah, So we just head to the docks and when no one is there, boda bing boda boom, problem solved." He said enthusiastically.

Sun looked at Blake. "But we've yet to discuss the elephant in the room."

Blake's stomach dropped into a pit. "I don't know how to handle it, well find out when we cross that bridge." She said.

"We get going." Blake said standing up from her chair placing the Lien on the table.

Sun followed suit.

They walked along the sidewalk for a bit till Blake came before a familiar sight.

**Tukson's Book Trade**

He was a contact of Blake's from her time in the White Fang. In fact he was the one who helped Blake make her new transcripts for Beacon. So when she'd asked for a place to lie low for a bit he had obliged.

When Blake and Sun came in Tukson gave them a glance before nodding. They both continued up the stairs and came to a door. Blake hesitated for a moment but grabbed the door knob and opened the door.

The first thing she noticed was that he was trying and failing to pretend to be unconscious.

"I can tell that you're awake." She said.

* * *

**POV Cardin **

Cardin Winchester was many things. Strong, awesome, handsome and amazing to name a few. But patient was not one of them. So one could guess how he was feeling right now about walking around in vale looking for his missing teammate.

The first day nothing seemed unnatural. Cardin and Russel had both assumed that Roy had found a place in the city to spend the night. They couldn't complain it was weekend to do what he pleases anyway. Cardin just sent a message via scroll to remind him to keep in touch.

The red flags appeared when he hadn't answered the message by the next morning. No problem Cardin had thought perhaps he had slept late. But eventually when it was around noon Russel and Cardin knew something was up.

It became more apparent when Roy didn't pick up any of the numerous cal,s they gave him. No something had happened alright and now Cardin was stuck trying to find out what it was.

"Roy where are you." Russel was walking beside Cardin. He called in to work that something had come up."

"Roy." Cardin shouted using his frustration to fuel it.

They'd been walking around for what felt like hours and still no sign of Roy.

Cardin could have been doing something, anything more productive right now. Like training or training or training the point was Cardin would much rather be doing that the wandering around Vale without a clue.

Before he could voice his complaints however something impacted his chest.

He looked down to see that the something was actually a someone. Cardin inwardly groaned when he recognized who it was.

"Oh sorry mister I was in a hurry I didn't see you there." Ruby Rose apologized rubbing her head. That was until of course she looked up and saw Cardin glowering down at her. "O-Oh, Hey Cardin funny s-seeing you here."

Cardin didn't like Ruby or anyone on her team for that matter. They were teachers pets and the Professors clearly liked them enough to get away with certain things. Not only that they were also self righteous pricks who had a holier than thou attitude.

But of all of them Ruby was the one that ground his gears the most. Not because she was such a goddamn optimistic and naive to boot, that was only part of the reason Cardin was so irritated by her presence though. What was got on his nerves was the fact she got so much praise and the title "Prodigy".

Cardin had been considered a prodigy once back at Bedrock Combat School a rival school to Signal Academy. He had been the undisputed king of campus and owned every record and received every accolade. He was on pace to be scouted by the huntsman academies. He hadn't seen anyway for something to go wrong. But then his semblance happened or rather didn't happen and everything fell apart then and there. Suddenly all of his fellow classmates seemed to leap ahead of him in terms of ability and prowess and he fell back into obscurity, any chance at being the super star he was destined to be was ruined.

So then there was Ruby a prodigy as well, but privately taught by a teacher at Signal Academy and with a powerful semblance to boot who was two years younger than most of Cardins class. It was infuriating, How come she had a really powerful semblance and at such a young age? Why not him?

No he was stuck forced to train up his aura and physical abilities just to stand a chance against his fellow huntsman. It had worked to an extent, with Cardin having a large pool of aura and unmatched physical strength. But Cardin couldn't break into the upper tier of students. People like Yang, Pyrrha, Ruby, Weiss and Nora. He hadn't seen Pyrrhas and Nora's but he was sure that they had theirs.

As Ruby was getting up and dusting herself off Cardin was getting ready to angrily tell her to scram. Until an orange haired girl appeared right next to her.

"Are you okay Ruby friend, did you see Blake." The girl asked Ruby. The words in his throat died out and were replaced with curiosity.

It seemed Russel was the same way "why don't you know where your teammate is?" He asked.

Ruby looked at Cardin and Russel and looked to be apprehensive in telling them. "Blake went missing around two days ago, and we haven't seen her since. Have you seen her at all?"

"No we haven't. Two days ago huh." Russel answered giving a look at Cardin. "That's a very funny coincidence isn't it?" He said.

"Yeah it is." Cardin answered. He was starting to think that it had something with Roy's disappearance.

"What do you mean coincidence?" Ruby asked, "Did something happen to your team as well."

"That's no of you're buss…" Cardin began.

"Roy went missing two days ago too." Russel cut over him.

"What, Why are you telling them that." Cardin growled.

"Because the might know something, who cares if you don't like them." Russel reasoned.

"Wait you guys are part of Roy's team!" The orange girl suddenly said loudly.

"Yeah, why do you ask." Russel asked.

"I met him the day he disappeared with my teammate. Him and my teammate ended up looking for me when I got separated from my team totally by accident." The girl said.

"Ok so what happened to him if he was with you and your team." Cardin said clearly annoyed.

"Yeah Penny it might give us some clues to where Blake had gone as well." Ruby said optimistically making Cardin grind his teeth together.

"I'm sorry but the last I saw him he was already leaving to head back to Beacon." Penny apologized.

"Well that was useless, so all we know is that Roy was heading back to Beacon but didn't show up. We already knew that, come on Russel let's keep searching." Cardin said sarcastically.

"W-Wait why don't we search together." Ruby said sheepishly.

"Why would we do that. We're looking for different people and don't you have a team to help you look?" Cardin said, no way in hell was he going to spend the rest of the day with this nerd.

"Actually cooperation would be very efficient. As finding one of them is more than likely going to yield clues to where the other is." The orange haired girl now known as Penny said as though she was reading an instruction manual or report.

"Yeah what she said." Ruby quickly piggybacked of Penny's reasoning.

Cardin shared a glance at Russel who was doing the same. An unspoken conversation went between the to before Cardin finally faced the two girls again. "Fine." He groaned.

* * *

**POV Roy**

"I can tell that you're awake." Blake said.

I knew the gig was up so I opened my eyes. Just as I expected Blake was there standing in front of me. Off to the side was a monkey faunus with blonde hair and a very "open" wardrobe.

I wasn't dead so that was a plus I guess? Blake walked up to me and suddenly ripped off the tape on my mouth.

"FFuuck!" I cursed. Son of a bitch that hurt. "What the hell!"

I glared at the offending cat faunus. "So you're going to explain why I'm tied up in a chair. Because I'm pretty sure this isn't foreplay."

"I think there's been a bit of a misunderstanding Roy." Blake began. But I didn't let her finish.

"No actually I think I figured it out. You see I've had a lot of time to think about it while I've been tied up. You're with the White Fang aren't you. You infiltrating beacon in order to do something nefarious probably with the dust that's being stolen right now, but you got caught by me and you need to make sure I stay silent about. You can't kill me now since it would be bad that I went missing at the same time you had a period of absence as well. It would draw attention to you and your fellow White Fang members. Well guess what, I ain't staying quiet I won't let you put any lives in danger!" I finished it with a defiant glare right back at Blake.

I know she was billed as a main character in the show. But that could mean she was playing a big role not that she was a good guy. They might have planned for her to be evil for most of the show and switch to the side of good during the final battle or something like that for all I know. So I wasn't going to take any chances.

Blake seemed to be processing what I just said because she had a confused look on her face. "I'm not a part of the White Fang." She claimed.

"O please, do you think I'm stupid. Why else would you be hiding your faunus traits and reacting the way you did when someone finds out." I retorted, "You're clearly apart of something."

It was here that her blonde compatriot decided to step in. "She not apart of the White Fang _anymore_. She left them after they became too violent and ran away to beacon, so she's not trying to harm beacon or anything like that." He tried to sound reasonable.

Ok so he seemed pretty level headed. He was using facts to argue his point unlike Blake. Maybe I could use that to my advantage.

"How are you supposed to prove that? You can't just say I'm no longer apart of a terrorist group that Is famous for its violence and destruction was in and expect me to believe you." I said sarcastically.

Being this snarky was my defense mechanism for when I was nervous. And right I was extremely nervous, my heart was hammering in my ears. Meanwhile the blonde and Blake shared a look of concern. Looks they couldn't think of a way to justify their actions.

The Monkey Faunus suddenly perked up. "How about instead of telling you we're not a part of the White Fang we show you were not a part of the White Fang." He asked.

My True Crimes senses were tingling, this might be the opportunity I was waiting for. But I had to keep my cool and play my cards right. "And pray do tell how will you do that? I asked trying to seem uninterested.

"You know how you said that there have been a spring of dust robberies lately?" He asked.

"Yeah?" I said slowly.

"Well if the White Fang are the ones stealing the dust then that means they're planning something, Right?" He continued.

"Right?" I answered back slowly.

"So if we go to a place that is likely to be targeted and it's not the White Fang who are robbing the place wouldn't that mean we're not part of the White Fang. Then we stop the robbery capture the bad guys and make them confeess to the crimes goijg on in Vale. This would prove that there is no White Fang activity in Vale and Blake is telling the truth." He finished.

Yeah I guess that would prove Blakes not part of the White Fang anymore, is still didnt mean i just forget about the whole kidnappping thing though. But first I needed to be untied and get _Greed_ back before I could make an escape attempt if they did turn out to be White Fang agents. "And if the White Fang are there you guys call the police as proof." I said.

"They won't be there, the White Fang have never needed this much dust before, why would they be stealing it now." Blake said adamantly.

"So where are we going?" I asked.

"To the docks." Said Blake, "Schnee Dust Company shipment coming in."

"So untie me, if you're really innocent you would not have me restrained right?" I said. You gotta start, small first the bindings, then my weapon and scroll, then get out of here if things go south. Speaking of scrolls my team is probably wondering where I am. I'd have to worry about that later though.

"The names Sun Wukong, student from Haven Academy." He said While untying me. It might have been a fake alias but he was clearly trueing to prove he had nothing to hide. Once again he seemed like the more reasonable of the two."

I rubbed my wrists "so now what?" I asked.

**Later that day at night**

Me and Sun both climbed up the building to get to the roof where Blake was. I hadn't needed to make an escape yet. During this time I had been buddying up to Sun. He would have been pretty cool if it weren't for the fact I was supremely suspicous of him. Spending time with him made me think it was less than likely he was a part of the White Fang, I prodded him with some anti White Fang and Faunus questions to see if he would over react and slip up. None of that happened so he was either telling the Truth or a really good god damn actor.

"Did we miss anything?" Sun asked Blake as we lied down next to her. I put Sun in between us.

"No, not really, all they've done is offload the crates from the transports. The cargos all just sitting around right now." Blake said.

Sun produced an apple from out of nowhere "I stole you some food!" He said.

Blake gave Sun a questioning look, "Do you always break the law without giving a second thought?" She asked.

"Hey, weren't you in a cult or something?" Sun countered. Blake shot an angry glare at him, "Okay, too soon!"

I swiped the apple out of his hands and took a bite. I wasn't gonna pass up food like this, being held hostage by a 17 year old girl takes a lot of energy!

Before they continued the wind howled with the sound of jet engines. A bull head appeared out from the foggy night. It search lights came on sweeping the area for the cargo and a landing spot. I was half worried it would land on our hiding spot. But it mainly focused on the shipyards loading bay.

It landed and a hooded figure garbed in black and white walked out off the ramp. A grey metallic mask was visible on their head.

"Is that them?" Sun asked.

"_Oh no that's just some other group that wears grimm masks and steals dust." _I thought and nearly said.

"Yes it's them." Blake answered, and I could hear the surprise and disappointment in her voice.

The figure who walked out of the bull head first suddenly shouted, "All right, grab the tow cables!"

"You really didn't think they were behind it, did you?" Sun said.

"No. I think deep down I knew. I just didn't want to be right." Blake said glumly.

"Well that's great and all, but I think we should go now and call the authorities. I see you guys aren't a part of the White Fang. So give me back my weapon and let's get out of here." I whispered as loud as I could.

Sun tossed me back _Greed _and I transformed it into its rifle mode. "Ok let's not stay around any longer. Their faunus they might hear or smell us." I said.

They looked to follow me but the interruption of another voice caused them to pause.

"Hey! What's the holdup!?" All of the White Fang goons looked up at a man with orange hair, a white suit and a bowler cap. He gestured widely to the surrounding crates while walking down the ramp. "We're not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves at the moment, so why don't you animals try to pick up the pace?" He berated, I recognized that snide and condescending tone anywhere it was the master crime lord Roman Torchwick.

That meant all the more reason to get out of here to me.

I beckoned Sun and Blake to follow me but Blake was looking down at the White Fang and Roman.

"This isn't right. The White Fang would never work with a Human. Especially not one like that." She said, then she unsheathes her weapon which I learned was called Gambol Shroud and leapt off the roof.

WHAT THE HELL!

"Hey, what are you doing?!" An alarmed Sun called after her.

I was thinking the same thing accept a whole lot more profane.

I looked at Sun to the right of me, "Ok I've changed my mind she not a part of the White Fang, Shes just fucking insane." I practically screamed as quiet as I could.

Blake landed in a crotch and stalked toward the head of the operation AKA Torchwick.

"No, you idiot! This isn't a leash!" He was cut off by Blake wrapping her arms around his one neck "What the- Oh, for f-" he stopped speaking when a blade was pressed against his throat and rolled his eyes.

"Nobody move!" Blake shouted pressing the blade closer against Torchwicks neck and I could see the shimmer of his aura repelling it.

The White Fang Goons all readier their swords and guns and aimed them at Blake but none of them made a move to shoot.

"Whoa! Take it easy there, little lady." Roman said in I'm sure was what he thought a polite and nice voice.

As the White Fang soldiers stepped forward Blake quickly undid her bow and threw it up in the air before continuing to shout, "Brothers of the White Fang! Why are you aiding this scum?"

The White Fang was seemingly affected by this and some even lowered their guns at her.

Torchwick seemed to see this and was quick to speak up, "Oh, kid, didn't you get the memo?" He asked.

"What are you talking about?" She growled at him.

"The White Fang and I are going in on a joint business venture together!" He said as casually as one said they were going to get ice cream.

"Tell me what it is or I'll put an end to your little operation." Blake threatened.

The sound of more jet engines filled the air. I looked up to see there multiple bullheads in the air.

"I wouldn't exactly call it a little operation..." Roman said smirking and looking up.

Roman saw that Blake was looking up as well and I saw him smile a smile that didn't promise anything good. Before I could say anything though he shot his can into the ground and created an explosion that threw Blake back and off him.

* * *

**POV Cardin **

Cardin stopped what he was doing when heard the explosion. He didn't know how but he somehow knew that it was in someway somehow Roy's fault.

"Oh, no..." Ruby said behind him in a worried tone.

He turned around and traced where they were looking. A giant plume of smoke was rising off in the distance.

"That's over at the docks." Russel shouted.

"Let's go Blake's definitely over there she might need our help." Ruby shouted and took off in the direction of the docks with her semblance. Cardin, Russel and Penny right behind her.

"_What the hell have you gotten yourself into Roy." _Cardin Thought.

* * *

**POV Roy **

"We gotta go down there and help her." Sun said urgently next to me.

"There's like fifty goons down there we need a plan before we go charging in!" I said. Of course I wanted to help but I wasn't just gonna go down there guns blazing. This was a life or death situation and I much preferred life.

"We need to take out their boss first, he's the biggest threat. I'll take him, meanwhile you distract and whittle down the goons." Sun suggested.

Before I could say anything though he jumped down off the roof.

Ugh why do I even need to help? I was practically kidnapped into this I didn't owe them shit! I made to turn around and took a step forward. An explosion sounded off behind me and I sighed.

I turned around and took a running leap off the roof.

I landed in the middle of the main group of White Fang members. They all turned around and pointed their guns at me.

"What wonderful weather we're having today right?" I chuckled nervously.

Rather than answer my question they fired their guns. I ducked down and rolled out of the way. I let them do the rest of the work for me. After all shootings at the center of a circle is bound to result in friendly fire.

Most of the group fell to the ground in pain. It seemed like they either all had very little aura or none at all. The five faunus still standing charged me.

Compared to most huntsman in training these guys weren't much of a threat. Only their advantage in numbers required me to exercise on the side of caution. A spear to the temple, a kick to the groin, a few punches to the stomach and a sweep of the legs finished up the group and I turned my attention to the big boss battle going on Sun and Roman were still going at it.

However a bunch of White Fang goons propelled down from the extra bullheads and surrounded him.

I took that as my que to come in and help. I transformed _Greed _into its rifle mode and fired a bunch shots at Torchwick. He deflected all of them before looking at me.

"Oh great another one!" He complained before aim his cane and sending a bolt of fire at me. Which I swiftly and graceful dogged by throwing myself to the ground and out of the way before rolling to a stop.

Sun had engaged the White Fang reinforcements and was too busy to see that Torchwick was aiming at him. Luckily Blake reappeared to prevent him from firing.

"He's mine." She shouted.

Blake got in close and became a blur of afterimages and motion as she slashed both of her blades blades at Roman, who continually backed away and deflected each would-be blow with his cane at an unbelievable speed.

Blake however continued the assault dashing, hopping over, and sliding around Roman to try and find a weak spot in his defense, but her opponent, while simultaneously deflecting her attacks, landed a few powerful hits on Blake. This went on for a bit before Torchwick had one final hammering with his cane causing her fall back and fall to the ground.

He aimed the cane at her completely defenseless.

"Hyyah!" I shouted as I swept at the legs of Torchwick in hopes of throwing him off balance and getting a chance to disarm of his cane.

It didn't work, he just swept the hook of his cane to club me in the nose and I was forced to backpedal completely on the defensive.

I was continuously poked, prodded and smacked by his cane. Unlike Blake I did not have the speed to parry or block his strikes so I was practically being beaten up as though I was some sort of practice dummy. Worse yet was the fact I didn't have my armor on so I didn't even have that to absorb a portion of the strikes.

Now would have been a great time for my wonky semblance to appear and give me that boost I desperately needed right now!

It seemed my semblance was feeling cooperative as I felt the burning sensation and heat in my gut and stomach build up like it always did when my semblance appeared.

My vision cleared and everything slowed down again. The blow by the cane was fast but I knew where it was going and blocked it.

Torchwick looked at me mildly surprised for a second for some reason before his face hardened again and went back on the offensive.

I was blocking the blows now, only a few getting past me but I was still completely on the defensive. I had to create an opening. When stick and stones didn't work the next best thing was words.

"You know for a world renowned thief I expected someone taller." I taunted, "actually now that I think about it, you're not really that big of a deal, only really the city of Vale gives a shit about you."

"Well what a mouth you have on you kid, your far more gritty than your friends. But I can tell what you're trying to do and it won't work on me." He replied.

"And I can tell your taste in women is very young and small if your attire is any indicator, you look like your about to offer me a tour of the back of your white van." I countered.

That seemed to get him because a flash of white hot anger came across his face. So he was sensitive about his style or his love life it seemed so I had some ammo it seemed.

"Like who even wears bowler caps any more, you look like you have a black and white TV screening to go to." I snarked.

He over extended which was the opening I needed. I sidestepped the strike and threw a strong right hook at his mouth.

But my fist never made contact with his face. Instead I felt a strong grip on my wrist. Damn it his other hand stopped my attack.

He smirked at me and aimed his cane at me point blank.

He pulled the trigger.

*BOOM*

Eating an explosion to the face was not pleasant even with my aura. I felt like a boxer punched me in the jaw and my face got dunked in boiling water right after that.

I went airborne for a few seconds before crashing back onto the pavement for bit and coming to a stop.

My head was spinning and stars were orbiting my head. I looked down at myself

I was covered in burns and soot. These clothes were useless now. I looked down at my scroll which Sun gave me when he gave me back _Greed_, my aura meter was practically gone. A pebble could be thrown at me and it would probably break. My semblance disappeared and exhaustion weighed down on me immediately.

Man I was lucky I had an above average amount of aura otherwise I probably would be missing my jaw right now.

I looked over to Torchwick wondering why he hadn't finished me off yet. I saw that Blake and Sun had engaged him together and most of the White Fang goons were down.

After a nasty combination attack Torchwick was sent flying back, he looked up and aimed his cane up in the air. I followed his gaze and saw the containing hanging on the crane.

"Watch out!" I shouted as Torchwick fired.

Blake dodges quickly and Sun stumbles forward awkwardly rightly to the point of Romans gun. He gave his trademark smirk and aimed it at him.

"Hey!" A voice said.

Torchwick paused and looked up to the voice. His eyes narrowed before returinig to normal.

"Well, hello, Red! Isn't it past your bedtime?" He asked sarcastically.

Up on the roof was one Ruby Rose in all her glory and I could have never been happier to see those bright silver eyes of hers.

A figure approached from behind her. "Ruby, are these people your friends?" They asked.

It was Penny! What was she doing here? Then two other figures came into view. It was Russel and Cardin. Oh I'm so grateful to see those ugly mugs of theirs.

"Penny, get back!" Ruby ordered her. But she made the rookie mistake of taking her eyes off of the enemy. Torchwick fired a blast at her while her back was turned.

It would have been a direct hit too if it wasn't for the giant hand that pulled Ruby out of the way causing her to drop _Crescent Rose _to the ground.

"Don't take your eyes of the enemy." Cardin shouted at her holding her up by the hood of her cape.

Penny glared at Torchwick and made her way forward with a glare on her normally cheery face.

"Penny, wait! Stop!" Ruby called but she was still being held up in the air by Cardin.

"Don't worry Ruby." Penny said without taking her eyes off Torchwick. "I'm Combat Ready!"

What the hell did that mean?

Pennys backpack opened up, and from its single opening came a single hovering sword. It then extended and multipleid into several blades hovering over Penny's back.

Penny leaped from the rooftop with her weapons acting as wings, she sent three of her swords to knock two White Fang soldiers down before even landing on the ground, where she proceeded to fling the swords at one White Fang solider, who was impaled into a wall,

She created a barrier of spinning steel blades against the running attack of another soldier, Penny leaped over a goon with her swords in tow, and finally spinning in a wheel she threw the attack like an oversized shuriken which knocked multiple of the hostile Faunus off their feet and out of the fight.

I'm pretty sure I caught a couple flies in my mouth.

The three Bullheads from the skies come in and open fire on the battlefield among at the orange haired girl, but Penny merely formed a shield and launched two of her swords into the wall behind her, which in turn began to pull their wielder back with their strings.

Penny called out all of her swords and they began to swirl, she seemingly commands them to open their points and suddenly a build up of large glowing green light is created. With a punching action, several bright lasers crack the pavement and fire at the transports at light speed. They slice each one in half, causing several of the White Fang members inside to fall to the ground.

Penny aims her swords at the remaining Bullhead that is holding the crate of Dust and pulls back on their wires connecting to the swords, tugging the aircraft with her.

_"How is she doing that?"_ I wondered.

Seeing the Bullhead's flight fall under Penny's control, Roman grimaced and turned to run towards the last transport that was untouched by the entire battle.

Penny pulling with all her might on the strings causes the aircraft to crashe into a stack of crates, causing a big explosion as a result.

"These kids just keep getting weirder everyday..." Roman bemoaned flying away from the docks and out of range of the assembled students.

**Later**

I was sitting on a stack of crates waiting for the teachers and authorities to arrive. I was still covered in soot and my jaw was still sore. Russel and Cardin were with me. They asked me if I was hurt or needed help but other than that they hadn't asked where I had been. They were probably waiting for the team to be alone to ask that.

Not to far away Ruby, Blake, Sun and Penny were on another stack of crates.

The police arrived first and had us give witness reports.

Yang and Weiss arrived next on the scene. I totally wasn't eavesdropping on the conversation either.

"Look Weiss, it's not what you think, she explained the whole thing. See, she doesn't actually have a bow, she has kitty ears and they're actually kind of cute..." Ruby spoke hastily trying to go on damage control.

Blake spoke calmly and with her face looking down toward the pavement. "Weiss, I want you to know that I'm no longer associated with the White Fang. Back when I was with the-"

"Stop! Do you have any idea of how long we've been searching for you?" she paused, "Twelve hours. That means I've had twelve hours to think about this. And in that twelve hours, I've decided..."

Yang, Sun, and Ruby looked on, all of them worried.

"That I don't care." Weiss finished.

"You don't care?" Blake said stunned at the heiresses answer.

"You said you're not one of them anymore, right?" Weiss asked.

"No, I-I haven't been since I was younger-" Blake answered quietly.

Weiss cut her off "Ah-bah-bah-bah-bah! I don't want to hear it. All I want to know is that the next time something this big comes up... you'll come to your teammates. And not some..." she looked at the sun then at me and my teammates. "Someone else."

"Of course." Blake said and I could have sworn her eyes were misty.

Ruby waved her hands over her head "Yeah! Team RWBY is back together!"

Blake face darkened, "not quite." She turned her head and looked at me and caught me looking over at their group. I immediately turned my head the other way.

Her and Ruby and the rest of team RWBY huddled for a second before Ruby broke out of it and slowly walked up to me and team CRDLS.

"Um Roy can I t-talk to you." She asked quietly.

"What do you want, we already helped you find your partner." Cardin sneered.

I placed my hand up and he paused. "It's ok what is it Ruby?" I had a guess at what it was about.

She looked between Russel, Cardin and I, "without your teammates please."

Russel looked like he was about to protest but I cut him off. "Ok, I see why not." I rasped.

I followed her over to her team.

Blake was the first to speak. "Look Roy I'm sorry about what happened I wish we hadn't gotten off on the wrong foot." She apologized.

"You call nearly strangling me and pretty much kidnapping me getting off on the wrong foot?" I snapped. She flinched at that.

"Hey, She was doing it to protect herself and stop the White Fang." Yang came to her defense angrily. Weiss placed her hand on Yang shoulders to stop her.

"That doesn't justify her actions though, she's downright crazy in my book." I said.

"It was worth it though. We ended up stopping the White Fang from stealing all that dust." Blake said.

"Really? That same line of thinking doesn't sound to different from the White Fangs. The ends Justify the means right? If peace is achieved it doesnt matter how many poeple are hurt or killed." I said.

"I didnt kill anyone! I would never!" Blake said offended.

"Maybe not today you didn't but its one slippery slope. Its an accident one day, self defense the next, Justified the next and before you know it your willing to assign a worth on every living person." I decreed.

"But I wouldn't do that ..." she paused and the bow she had put back on flatttened, "I'm not like him."

It was silent for a moment.

"Does this mean you're gonna report Blake to the Professors." Ruby asked with a downcast look.

By all accounts I should. For starters she was technically a criminal. She fucking kidnapped me and I was really angry about said event. There were only three things that were stopping me from saying I would. One, the fact that she wasn't with White Fang anymore acutally. Two, she was deep down a good person who at least thought what they were doing was right and not for some ulterior reason, so I knew she had good intentions now that I figured out the big picture.

Three, the puppy dog eyes that Ruby was giving me right now. They were so powerful and she looked like she would burst into tears if I turned Blake in.

I tried to resist but I ended up just turning my head to the side and avoiding eye contact. "Only because if I did, she would run off to try and take down the White Fang by herself and wouldn't have a team to watch her back or keep her in check." I tsked, "it doesn't mean I've forgiven you or forgotten." I just wasn't a big enough asshole to split of team RWBY even if it would probably benefit my team.

I crossed my arms and looked away. I felt a pair of arms wrap around my waist. I looked down to see it was Ruby.

"Thank you Roy, you're not such a bad guy after all." She whispered.

I grew red from embarrassment. "Get off me, I'm not some stupid stuffed animal!"

I got the hell out of there and back to my team.

"What was that about?" Russel asked.

"I'm not sure you would want to know." I said exasperated, "let's just go back to beacon, fighting a wanted criminal has made very tired."

* * *

**Authors Notes: And that's it for chapter 8. The conflict with Blake has pretty much been solved. Now all the preparations for the Vytal festival is next. As always I hope you enjoyed the chapter, comment what you liked and disliked. Feedback is appreciated. I hope everyone has a happy new year.**


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